Imagine the opportunity to build your professional presence from any location with Wi-Fi. That's exactly what co-founders Micha Kaufman and Shai Wininger did when they envisioned Fiverr, a global marketplace that brings creative freelancers and business owners in need of digital services together.
At the onset, the micro-transactions were called gigs and cost a mere $5, giving rise to the name Fiverr. Today, that's just the starting point for payouts to the freelancers who sell comprehensive online services on the task-based platform. As Fiverr celebrates 10 years of operations in 2020, we're highlighting its business growth over the past decade.
Kaufman and Wininger knew there was another way to work beyond punching an hourly time clock. They decided to focus on making project-based work available to skilled digital services providers. In February of 2010, the two launched the Fiverr website from their headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Over the years, Fiverr has opened additional offices in Berlin, London, Miami, New York City, Phoenix and San Francisco.
The industrious freelance community flocked to the new Fiverr platform to secure work, and by 2012 approximately three million self-employed creatives had registered with Fiverr. In their first two years of business, Fiverr facilitated more than 1.3 million transactions between businesses and freelancers thanks to $20 million in funding from investors.
To make the Fiverr platform accessible to both business owners and freelancers on-the-go, the team created two mobile apps. In December of 2013, the iOS app launched for Apple users. The following spring, an Android version hit the Google Play Store.
In the summer of 2014, Fiverr secured a Series C round of funding to the tune of $30 million. Not long after, in 2015, a round of Series D funding of $60 million brought the company's investor commitments to a total of $110 million by November.
The company also lifted the $5 flat fee for services, allowing freelancers to charge higher rates. This in turn, expanded the services offered to include more comprehensive solutions, rather than quick, checkbox tasks.
To bolster their menu of services, Fiverr acquired VeedMe, a video creation marketplace. Its purpose dovetailed nicely with the Fiverr community, making it a logical growth step. And, to better serve their valued freelancers, Fiverr purchased invoicing software company AND CO in January 2018.
On June 13, 2019, Fiverr went public with an IPO. You can view them on the New York Stock Exchange as FVRR. At this point Kaufman and Wininger had over 360+ employees sharing in their dream.
By the third quarter of 2019, Fiverr grossed $27.9 million in revenue, an impressive 42% increase over the previous year. And the freelancers? They happily invoiced an estimated $750 billion.
After ten years of partnerships, we're thrilled to announce that more than 5.5 million businesses have generated over 50 million transactions with freelancers from 160 countries via our digital services platform.
This work has spanned more than 300 categories of services housed under an umbrella of nine verticals: Graphics & Design, Digital Marketing, Writing & Translation, Video & Animation, Music & Audio, Programming & Tech, Business, Lifestyle and Industries.
As we dive into 2020, Fiverr's mission to change how the world works together remains strong and focused. Connecting talented freelance professionals with businesses of all sizes across the globe to handle tasks ranging from graphic design and digital marketing, to computer programming and animation is our ongoing goal.
Our current developments center around improving communications by using Zoom video conferencing, offering foreign currency payments and highlighting our top talent in the Fiverr Studios.
Are you interested in joining our growing global marketplace of creatives? Learn more here.
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