Abstract raises $30 million to enable designers to work like developers
Abstract, the git-enabled design workflow platform that already supports thousands of modern product design teams, has raised $30 million in Series C funding.
Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round with participation from existing investors Scale Venture Partners, Amplify Partners, and Cowboy Ventures, bringing the total funding to-date to $54.2 million.
As part of this financing, Lightspeed partner Nakul Mandan will be joining the company board.
With Abstract, design teams have end-to-end connectivity: everything from storing, managing, and versioning design files, to design system distribution, streamlining reviews, presenting work, gathering feedback, and handing design files off to development.
Nakul Mandan, partner at Lightspeed, says: “As design becomes an increasingly significant competitive advantage, the tools designers use have to become more sophisticated, collaborative, and transparent to the broader organization.
“At Lightspeed, we invest in the sort of exceptional teams that are poised to transform a market.
“Josh, Kevin, and the rest of the Abstract team have reimagined a design workflow that is quickly becoming the professional standard for how growing design teams work together and with functional stakeholders.
“We are excited to partner with Abstract to help the company continue its explosive growth.”
Abstract is also releasing several new features and product enhancements. Developer features like Inspect and Assets give customers the ability to view all design specifications and export the assets needed for implementation, without worrying about referencing an outdated design spec.
And new enterprise admin features like SAML 2.0 & pre-built Okta integrations, account provisioning, and team management give organizations greater flexibility and security as they scale.
While Abstract started with support for Sketch, a popular product design tool, the team is working on adding support for more file formats and just opened up an early access waitlist for Adobe XD and Illustrator.
Since its launch in July 2017, over 5,000 design teams around the globe have adopted Abstract, including teams from Shopify, Cisco, Intuit, Spotify, Salesforce, Instacart, OpenTable, and more.
Kellen Mannion, design systems lead at OpenTable, says: “Abstract has streamlined our design process so much that our team has saved hundreds of hours in work.
“We now have a centralized hub for all product design communication channels, visual language, and contributions.
“We’ve eliminated the scramble of figuring out where things live, and our leadership team and stakeholders always know where they can find the latest designs for review and where to leave feedback.”
Josh Brewer, CEO and co-founder of Abstract, says: “With this additional investment, Abstract can continue to build out a flexible design workflow platform, where designers, developers, and stakeholders from across the company can participate in the design process.
“As Abstract looks to continue to serve more design teams, Lightspeed’s experience in helping SaaS companies accelerate sales and marketing was attractive to help the company manage rapid growth.”
