Blog

January 27, 2021

Welcoming LottieFiles to the M12 portfolio

Lottiefiles illustration

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M12

Screens have become omnipresent in our day-to-day — a vehicle for all of the static images, videos, and text that comprise updates from friends and family, entertainment, or even advertising. In all the noise, motion has been shown to break through, capturing consumer attention with short, delightful activity.

While motion graphics haven’t witnessed much innovation since the 1980s, LottieFiles is disrupting the entire genre of expression.I am excited to welcome LottieFiles — the leading platform and ecosystem for designers and developers that create motion graphics and interactive design using the new Lottie file format — to the M12 portfolio as the lead of their Series A funding round.

The majority of today’s popular apps are already using the Lottie file format for their motion graphics due to its many value propositions: lightweight size (600% smaller than GIFs), ability to manipulate in runtime, and ease of use — developers don’t need to code design assets for every platform individually. There is a growing demand for digital content and engagement in the midst of pandemic stay-at-home orders, and as the result of organic developer adoption, LottieFiles has seen 300% YoY growth. They have surpassed one million users from over 65,000 companies globally, including Google, TikTok, Disney, Uber, Airbnb, Netflix, and more.

LottieFiles have surpassed one million users from over 65,000 companies globally, including Google, TikTok, Disney, Uber, Airbnb, Netflix, and more.

LottieFiles co-founders
LottieFiles co-founders Kshitij Minglani and Nattu Adnan

LottieFiles is the go-to platform for all things Lottie; they are even making the “dotLottie” file format more powerful with enhanced vector graphic elements such as 3D, haptic touch, and interactivity. The team has created a unique set of editing and collaboration tools that seamlessly integrate with popular design software and developer environments, including Adobe After Effects, Figma, VS Code, and more. For those who aren’t building their own animations, there is a multitude of free content available on the platform, as well as a marketplace of over two million assets.

The company has incredible leadership at its helm. Kshitij Minglani, co-founder and CEO, is a serial entrepreneur with successful growth and exits under his belt. Co-founder and CTO Nattu Adnan has spent over 20 years in tech, ten of which were in product design. He is a serial community and developer evangelist, and a key contributor to the purely product-led, organic referral growth that LottieFiles has experienced to date.

As no code/low code and design-to-code tools gain momentum, designers are no longer dependent on the standard weeks-long development cycles to bring their designs to life via code. Instead, the designer workflow is fundamentally redefined, streamlining the back-and-forth between developers and designers. Good design is increasingly translating to good business and better toplines; it’s encouraging to see that LottieFiles has gained such tremendous organic adoption among the design community as a solution for this streamlined workflow. The company has cultivated a loyal community of designers, especially because of their commitment to the open-source ecosystem.

Kshitij, Nattu, and the team plan to use the funds raised to advance the LottieFiles product roadmap, and to grow the global community. We are excited to support them, alongside existing investors Adobe and 500 Startups. Congratulations to LottieFiles on this fundraise, and welcome to the M12 family! We look forward to your continued growth.

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