Lightricks, founded in January 2013, is a company that develops video and image editing mobile apps, known particularly for its selfie-editing app,

Facetune Facetune is a photo editing application used to edit, enhance, and retouch photos on a user's iOS or Android device created by Lightricks. The app is often used for portrait and selfie editing. The app implements a number of beauty filters a ...

. Headquartered in Jerusalem, the firm has over 450 employees. As of 2021, its apps have been downloaded over 500 million times.

History

The company was created in 2013 by 5 founders, Ph.D. students Zeev Farbman, Nir Pochter, Yaron Inger, Amit Goldstein, and former Supreme Court of Israel clerk Itai Tsiddon who were all studying at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

. Lightricks began life as a

bootstrapped In general, bootstrapping usually refers to a self-starting process that is supposed to continue or grow without external input. Etymology Tall boots may have a tab, loop or handle at the top known as a bootstrap, allowing one to use fingers ...

company, which was the subject of a case study from the

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

"Bootstrapping at Lightricks". The company received in 2015 its first funding round of $10 million led by

Viola Ventures Viola Ventures ( he, ויולה ונצ'רס), (formerly Carmel Ventures ( he, כרמל ונצ'רס)), established in 2000, is an Israeli venture capital fund with over $1.3 billion under management. History Viola Ventures is focused on early sta ...

. It received its second round of funding of $60 million in November 2018, led by

Insight Venture Partners Insight Partners (previously Insight Venture Partners) is an American venture capital and private equity firm based in New York City. The firm invests in growth-stage technology, software and Internet businesses. History Insight Partners was fo ...

and with participation from Israeli VC company ClalTech. In July 2019, it secured $135 million in series C funding led by Goldman Sachs, with participation from Insight Partners and ClalTech; this was reported to imply a $1 billion valuation. It puts the total raised to date at $205 million. Lightricks ended 2018 with over $50 million in revenue. In September 2021, the company received $100 million in primary and $30 million in secondary Series D funding. This valued the company at $1.8 billion.

Operations

After beginning in the Hebrew University campus, the company outgrew its space a number of times. It remains based in

Jerusalem, Israel Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, with offices in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

; it has a total of over 450 employees. Once

Apple Inc Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

allowed it, Lightricks was one of the first app companies to offer subscriptions. Most of its apps are now published under a

freemium Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium," is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical (o ...

model.

Products

(now superseded by Facetune2) which was named as Apple's most downloaded app in 2017. In 2021 it was ranked as one of Apple's top-5 paid apps for the seventh consecutive year. * Photoleap (formerly known as ''Photofox and Enlight''), a general image editing app, which was preceded by Enlight Photofox. The app allows the user to generate artwork to be shared on social media with a number of different editing options. * Lightleap (formerly known as ''Quickshot''), a pre-image viewer. * Videoleap, a video editor. * Motionleap (formerly known as ''Pixaloop''), an image animation tool created in 2018 where one can animate otherwise-still elements of a picture in different ways. * Beatleap, an audio-first video editing tool. The app features music by Epidemic Sound. * Artleap (formerly known as ''QuickArt''), a photo editing tool. * Seen, a story making tool. * Boosted (formerly known as ''BoostApps''), a graphic design template tool aimed towards social media marketing. * Facetune Video, a selfie-retouching video tool that allows users to retouch and edit their selfie and portrait videos in real time using a set of A.I.-powered tools. * Filtertune, a photo filter tool designed to create a community around custom photo filters. With the app, creators can make their own personalized preset photo filters, then share them across social media as photos with a QR code attached.

References

External links

*{{official website, http://www.lightricks.com/ IOS software Photo software Companies based in Jerusalem Mobile software Software companies of Israel Software companies established in 2013 2013 establishments in Israel