DesignCrowd has come a long way since it first entered the market in 2008. Recently, the online crowdsourcing platform reached one million registered designers. And its gross combined income? An astonishing $62 million.
Designers of this Australian startup have produced more than 26 million designs for their customers. In fact, they have already serviced hundreds of thousands of clients on a short-term or long-term basis.
The type of clients that they serve also vary immensely – from micro-businesses to multi-national firms. The platform also takes pride in having served brand giants. These clients include Virgin, Harvard Business School, and many other firms in almost 200 countries.
Given its recent breakthrough, founder Alec Lynch is surely happy to see the platform on its way to becoming one of the biggest worldwide.
Growing with the global freelance economy
One of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global workplace is the growth of a flexible job. That said, data experts project the global freelance economy to go over $455 billion by 2023.
The swell in freelance work may be the effect of what’s called the “Great Resignation.” But what is it, exactly? Simple – more people are quitting their jobs. Marketplace.org says this may be surprising because of the high unemployment rates all over the US. In fact, a study found that 4.3 million people left their jobs in August 2021. The “quits rate” is up to 2.9 percent – the highest data yet.
Given the turn of events, the freelance workspace looks good for people who quit the old-school workspace. After all, being a freelance worker means having more freedom and not enduring a 9 to 5 job. It can also mean having the choice to achieve a better work-life balance.
The freelance industry was growing fast and contributed $1.3 trillion to the US economy in annual income for 2021, as per a study by freelance platform Upwork. This is a huge leap from $100 million in 2020.
Aside from the rising value of the freelance workplace, around 36 percent of the entire US labor force also did some type of freelance work over the last 12 months.
DesignCrowd’s position in the market
With the freelance workspace taking center stage amid the pandemic, DesignCrowd is surely on its way to being one of the biggest design platforms in the market. Also, the firm has raised a venture capital of more than $20 million, with a $10 million pre-IPO fundraising earlier in 2021.
The firm already grew 32 percent in 2019. But with strict lockdowns during the pandemic, the firm grew even faster than ever before.
Lynch says this may be due to many ventures closing their doors for good since the pandemic hit March 2020. As a result, many people started their small ventures. As DesignCrowd offers graphic design for ventures that can’t hire in-house designers, they turned to the platform for logo designs, social media images, and many more.
The platform has over 100,000 clients who turn to them for designs. After all, they promise to save clients money and time as they offer services to meet any budget. Some clients can also receive designs within hours, allowing small ventures to launch projects within their timeline.
Creativity is another upside offered by the platform. Because their freelance workers are from various parts of the globe and with exposure to different design trends, clients have access to many design styles.
With their designer base reaching the one-million milestone, the platform is optimistic that it can support small ventures to help revive the economy after the effects of the pandemic.
