Vector design tool Vectornator raises $20M round led by EQT Ventures [TechCrunch]

It’s an age-old tech industry story: company comes up with a tool to solve its own problem, then realizes the tool is actually worth more than the existing company. Something similar happened to Linearity. Its 17-year-old founder, Vladimir Danila, came up with the Vectornator tool to make vector design easier in 2017. It’s now used by Apple, Disney, Wacom and Microsoft. Disney uses Vectornator to create artwork for hotels in Disneyland, in fact.

The vector-focused platform has now raised a $20 million funding round led by EQT Ventures together with 468 Capital. It’s been joined by Angels including Bradley Horowitz (VP Product, Google), Jonathan Rochelle (Co-Founder Google Docs, Google Spreadsheets, Google Slides, Google Drive), Charles Songhurst (Ex. Corporate Strategy, Microsoft) and Lutz Finger (Group Product Manager, Google).

The company says the funding will be used to double down on its mobile-first product, Vectornator, adding AI-powered automation and collaboration features, and new products and expand in the USA and Europe as well as Asia.

Vladimir Danila, CEO and founder at Linearity said: “When I first got into design aged 10 over a decade ago, I found the tools hard to use and intimidating. I immediately wanted to create my own suite of tools to solve that issue as vectors become more relevant than pixels and are also superior in every aspect except for photography. Vectornator is all about customer experience, simplicity and not overcomplicating the software. I’m thrilled to be working alongside Ted and the team to glean knowledge and market understanding and help to grow our platform.”

Ted Persson, Partner at EQT Ventures commented: “For me, there were two clear sides to joining forces with the Linearity team. Vladimir is a very clear-cut founder who has built an outstanding product. Design tools are some of the hardest tools to build, but Vladimir and his team have shown that anything is possible.”

Investor interest in design tools has exploded since the success of Canva, which is now valued at $15 billion.