Digital media giant Adobe just announced that it is buying Frame.io, a NYC-based media collaboration startup, for $1.275 billion in cash.
Founded in 2014, Frame.io was created to help solve the many workflow challenges filmmakers often face. The platform integrates with video editing systems like Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro so creators can edit and share video content with collaborators or clients, touting faster upload speeds than other cloud services like Dropbox or Vimeo. It also serves as a single location where creators can house media assets like scripts, storyboards and works-in-progress, allowing frame-by-frame comments and annotations as well.
Frame.io has raised more than $80 million in venture capital, including most recently a $50 million Series C led by Insight Partners. It counts familiar names like BuzzFeed, Netflix and National Geographic as just a few of its more than a million customers.
Meanwhile, at nearly 40 years old, Adobe is considered a goliath in the digital media and marketing space — perhaps best known for its suite of photo and video editing tools like Photoshop and After Effects. The company initially tried to create its own video collaboration software similar to Frame.io, but decided to purchase it instead because some of its customers were already using Frame.io, as reported by Bloomberg.
“Frame.io and Adobe share a vision for the future of video creation and collaboration that brings together Adobe’s strength in video creation and production and Frame.io’s cloud-native platform,” Emery Wells, Frame.io’s co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. “We’re excited to join Adobe to continue to drive video innovation for the world’s leading media and entertainment companies, agencies and brands.”
Adobe says it expects the deal to close in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year. Once it does, Wells and his co-founder John Traver will join the Adobe team. Wells will continue to lead the Frame.io team, reporting to Adobe Creative Cloud executive Scott Belsky. Until then, Frame.io is hiring, with dozens of open tech positions.
This news comes on the heels of Vimeo’s recent spin-off from its parent company IAC — another big move in the world of video editing and sharing. The acquisition also comes at a time of “tremendous growth” for video creation and consumption, according to Adobe, and will potentially bring about a “new era” in collaboration and innovation.
“We imagine a world where everyone can participate in the creative process,” Belsky said in a statement. “With this acquisition, we’re welcoming an incredible customer-oriented team and added Frame.io’s cloud-native workflow capabilities to make the creative process more collaborative, productive and efficient to further unleash creativity for all.”
