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| VIEW EVENT INFORMATION: Giphy |
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Giphy Quietly Acquired Imoji To Build Out Its Emoji And Sticker business |
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About the organization Giphy:
Type: Business
Sub-Types: Website, Picture Hosting Agent, Search Engine, Social Networking Agent, GIF Hosting, GIF Sharing, Application Software, Telecommunication, Telecommunication Software |
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Notable Organizations: Giphy, Techcrunch
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| Last week, GIF-finding platform Giphy revealed a new line of business offering artist-created stickers in Apple’s iMessage app. But what it didn’t announce was that it also made an acquisition to bolster this new sticker strategy. TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that Giphy quietly acquired imoji, a startup that had developed a popular platform for creators to build and distribute custom-made stickers and emoji to the messaging masses.
Terms of the deal, which completed at the end of last year, were not disclosed. The acquisition includes all of imoji’s technology, including its platform for creators, as well as the whole team, which appears to include eight people, although some of them may not be full time. The founders of San Francisco-based imoji — Jason Stein, Daniel Brusilovsky, Nima Khoshini, Kirk Lacob, Thomas Smith, Ben Draa — include several ex-Apple engineers, as well as three people who also hold positions at the Golden State Warriors, the local pro basketball team.
We were originally tipped off to a possible acquisition by a reader who noticed that imoji’s apps (one for iMessage stickers, and one for stickers for other text messages) suddenly started to note that Giphy Inc was the owner of the app. Then, after we reached out to both companies to ask about them, the apps suddenly disappeared. You can see the cached versions of them here and here.
Now we understand that both apps will be making their way back to the App Store soon, along with the rest of the imoji business. Giphy plans to keep imoji’s standalone services — all services for artists, API partners, and general users — continuing as normal while also integrating some of the tech into its bigger platform for new services… and to fill out their collective vision of the world. |
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