99designs Establishes Design Student Fund to Celebrate 99,999th Design Contest

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 11, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Today 99designs, the largest online marketplace for crowdsourced graphic design services, announced it's celebrating the launch of its 99,999th design contest by establishing a $99,999 fund for design students. Since 2008, 99designs has pioneered the crowdsourced graphic design market by helping designers and small businesses around the world work together and build lasting relationships.

"It has been an exhilarating ride to 99,999 contests," said Mark Harbottle, co-founder of 99designs. "What better way to celebrate than by offering additional support to design students across the globe as they acquire the skills they need to build their careers."

99designs will award 1,010 x $99 bonus payments to students on top of every contest prize won, until the $99,999 cash pool runs out.

Every month over $1.2 million dollars is paid out to designers in the 99designs community as a result of design work commissioned by small businesses from around the world. In just over three years 99designs has:

• Built a community of over 125,000 designers in over 192 countries
• Paid a total of $25 million to its designers
• Uploaded a new design to the site every 6 seconds
• Placed over 13,000 logos available for customization and sale in its logo store
• Launched 99,999 design contests to date

"In the past year alone we've more than doubled our contest volume and made it significantly easier and more valuable for small businesses and designers alike to use our service. We also secured investment from leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm Accel Partners. This investment has enabled us to accelerate our growth and launch localized editions of our site in key markets," said Patrick Llewellyn, CEO of 99designs. "I want to thank our community of talented designers, the myriad of small businesses who use the service and our amazing team in Australia and San Francisco -- we couldn't have done it without you. Here's to the next 99,999 contests!"

99designs connects small businesses needing custom design work such as logos and websites to a global community of over 125,000 designers. Businesses benefit from engaging with multiple designers simultaneously making it easier to build the right relationship while designers are exposed to upwards of 1,200 new client opportunities at any given time and can showcase their work on a level playing field.

For more information about the Design Student Fund please see:
http://99designs.com/designers

About 99designs

99designs is the #1 marketplace for crowdsourced graphic design services. It connects small businesses needing custom design work such as logos and websites to a global community of over 125,000 designers. A new design is uploaded to the 99designs marketplace every 6 seconds, while designers are exposed to upwards 1,200 new business opportunities at any given time. 99designs ready-made logo store has over 13,000 high-quality logos available for customization and sale right off the shelf for $99. Since launching in 2008, 99designs has hosted 99,999 design contests to date and paid a total of $25 million to its designers.

Backed by Accel Partners (whose portfolio includes Facebook, Dropbox and Etsy) -- with participation from angel investors Michael Dearing (eBay, Harrison Metal), Dave Goldberg (Survey Monkey), Stewart Butterfield (Flickr, Tiny Speck), Leni Mayo (Learnable.com), Andrew Walsh (Hitwise) and Anthony Casalena (Squarespace) -- the company employs over 40 staff in Melbourne and San Francisco and enjoys 120 percent year-on-year growth.

www.99designs.com

SOURCE 99designs

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