123rf also acquired an American film collective called Story & Heart

123rf, the Malaysian stock-photo startup, has acquired an online vector-based design startup from Taiwan called Vectr.

Lauched 13 months ago after two years in development, Vectr provides an online tool for designers to easily make and share vector-based graphics. Vector uses math to create graphics, which makes it infinitely scaleable and thus great for designers who often need to work on extremely small details.

Nick Budden, the CEO of Vectr, was quick to say that the deal shouldn’t be viewed but that even this small deals “are not very common in Taiwan”. A significant reason why Budden reached out to e27 was because every acquisition, no matter the size, go a long way to help grow the Taiwanese ecosystem.

Furthermore, Budden is receiving investment from 123rf to kickstart his next project, also in the design space.

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For 123rf, the company will develop and market Vectr as a free tool for its users. The target audience is people who want to create graphics-based designs (logos being a good example), without having to go through the learning curve of advanced design tools like Adobe InDesign.

“Our acquisition of Vectr brings designers another great way to unleash their creativity, giving them the tools and inspiration to tell their stories with scalable vector graphics,” said Stephanie Sitt the Co-founder of 123RF in a statement.

At the time of the sale, Vectr had attracted over 400,000 users.

123rf acquires US-based filmaker academy Story & Heart

Inmagine Group, the parent company of 123rf, made another acquisition recently by buying a US-based video licensing platform called Story & Hearts.

Based in Portland, Oregon the company — and why it would be attractive to Inmagine — has built a bank of cinematic-quality footage which provides an avenue for filmmakers to get paid for their shots.

Story & Hearts will remain independently operated and the core team of the startup will remain with the company.

The typical customer for Story & Hearts include advertising agencies, film studios, television networks and independent filmmakers. Notable companies that have licensed the stock footage are Samsung, Google, Delta and CBS.

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“We want to change people’s perception of stock footage, part of that is working closely with our global community of world-class filmmakers. So everything on the platform is compelling, super high quality and cinematic,” said David Singer, the CEO and Co-founder at Story & Heart.

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