SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Minted, the design marketplace that connects consumers with the world’s best artists to make one-of-a-kind goods, today announced its first foray into the digital content business. Building on the success of its curated, crowd sourced business model, the company will begin enabling the creation and delivery of digital content through invitations and websites along with its physical goods – stationery and art. As part of this expanded offering, Minted has acquired Hitched Up, a Kansas City-based wedding websites provider, which will re-launch today under the Minted name and integrate with other relevant products.
Minted’s business expansion marks an important milestone for the company, which started in physical goods and now extends into digital content. Starting today in beta and with no cost for a limited time, Minted’s first digital assets will include hundreds of community created and curated website designs. The company plans to continue expanding upon its creative assets offerings including invitations in the coming months, enabling people access to original designs in digital format and giving artists within the Minted community the opportunity to connect to their audiences through yet another medium.
“There is significant demand for original digital content and as a trusted, established content company with a huge community of independent artists, Minted is able to quickly and easily scale the production of top quality content, whether in digital or physical form,” says company founder and CEO Mariam Naficy. “Our goal is to connect consumers with the best designs, and help designers and artists find as many outlets for commercializing their work as possible. Launching websites and digital invitations will allow Minted customers to express their unique style in a seamless way, across both digital and physical worlds."
With the inclusion of websites, Minted is able to offer more diversity of options to people planning weddings, for example – a market with more than 2.5 million estimated events in the U.S. each year, making up a $70 billion wedding industry. Overall, the digital content market is estimated at $6 billion annually in the U.S.
“Minted has the ability to scale into new and different vertical markets by replicating its successful business model time and time again across categories,” said Peter Fenton, General Partner at Benchmark Capital and an investor in Minted. “The inventory is limitless across tangible goods and digital content, making it an endlessly rewarding opportunity for creative designers and artists to contribute ideas, while surpassing expectations for consumers with the number of product options to purchase.”
Minted's focus on quality and fresh design makes it a logical pairing with our digital capabilities, targeting the ever-growing wedding market,” said Alan Christopher Thomas, Co-Founder of Hitched Up. “Minted has the acumen and resources to create an end-to-end wedding experience that's noticeably different from what is available today and we’re looking forward to being part of the team that makes this a reality.”
About Minted
Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Minted is a design marketplace that connects you to the world’s best independent artists to create something one-of-a-kind. Minted’s unique crowd sourced model represents a modern marketplace – one where the community decides what goods are showcased and sold. This model ensures fresh, on-trend designs are continuously being added to Minted. Minted enables artists, designers and photographers around the world to create original work, then provides them with an operations platform that handles all fulfillment and customer service. This leaves creatives to do what they do best, while letting Minted do the rest. The company – which began in stationery, then moved into art - recently expanded its design marketplace, launching textiles available by the yard in October 2014. Minted has raised $90M since launching in 2007 and is funded by Benchmark Capital, IDG Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Technology Crossover Ventures as well as angel investors.