Despite Canva being worth around $26 billion, startups seem to feel there’s still plenty to gain from this “easy-to-use design platform.” Admittedly, professional Adobe tools remain clunky for most people. Perhaps that’s why the Berlin-based startup
Kittl has now raised a €10.8 million ($11.6 million) Series A for its design platform, which it claims enables people to “convert ideas into graphic products with ease.”
The latest funding round was led by Left lane Capital. Also participating were Europe’s Speedinvest and a number of angel investors, including Intercom co-founder Des Traynor, former Bebo CEO Shaan Puri and product leaders from Calm, Amazon and Instagram.
Left Lane Capital is a New York-based VC best known for its investments in GoStudent, Wayflyer, and Masterworks, among others.
Co-founded by Nicolas Heymann and Tobias Saul, Kittl offers browser-based graphic design tools for creating logos, labels, postcards, and more.
Kittl screenshot
Via email, Heymann, co-founder and CEO told me: “With Kittl, we enable users to quickly and easily create professional designs by removing the barrier of a difficult learning curve. Our features are designed to make complex design processes simple and accessible with a few clicks. Our competitors either focus on basic tools that offer little creative freedom, or they need a lot of training and practice to get good at.”
Kittl started as Heritage Type, founded by Heymann and Tobias Saul in 2020, but was rebranded after raising a €1.6 million Seed round in October 2021.
Particularly given that AI is likely to replace many of these tools fairly quickly, Heymann says they plan to “double down on existing AI and machine learning efforts.”
“Kittl’s easy-to-use platform democratizes the creation of professional graphic design,” said Magnus Karnehm, Principal at Left Lane Capital, in a statement. “Kittl has grown its user base and user engagement at an incredible rate, and this is entirely due to their laser focus on creating a platform that encompasses ideation, creation, and ultimately graphic design monetization.”
Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.