Picsart
Picsart is an all-in-one digital creation platform that provides AI-powered tools for photo and video editing, design, and sharing, enabling users to create and remix visual content through customizable templates and a vast open-source library.[1][2] Founded in 2011 by Armenian-American entrepreneur Hovhannes Avoyan, the company has grown into the world's largest platform of its kind, with over 150 million active monthly users and more than 2 billion downloads as of 2025.[3][4] Headquartered in Miami Beach, Florida, Picsart originated as a mobile photo editing app but expanded to include web-based tools, community features, and advanced AI capabilities, such as generative image creation and background removal.[4][3] The platform launched its community in 2013, allowing users to share and collaborate on billions of creations monthly, and achieved unicorn status in 2021 after raising $130 million in Series C funding, valuing the company at nearly $1.5 billion.[3][5] Key milestones include introducing paid subscriptions in 2018, reaching 1 billion monthly edits by 2019, and partnering with entities like Getty Images in 2024 for enhanced content access.[3] Available in over 30 languages, Picsart caters to creators of all skill levels, from casual users to professionals, and has diversified into B2B solutions and enterprise tools, including dedicated enterprise solutions launched in 2025.[1][3]Company Overview
Founding and Leadership
Picsart was founded in November 2011 in Yerevan, Armenia, by entrepreneur Hovhannes Avoyan along with engineers Artavazd Mehrabyan and Mikayel Vardanyan. The idea originated from Avoyan's personal experience when his young daughter faced online bullying after sharing one of her drawings on social media, prompting him to create a platform that would empower users to enhance their visual creativity in a supportive environment. Initially developed as a mobile photo-editing app for Android—due to the iPhone's limited availability in Armenia at the time—Picsart aimed to provide accessible tools for self-expression and community interaction, filling a gap in mobile creative software.[5][6][7] Hovhannes Avoyan, an Armenian-American serial entrepreneur born in 1965 in Yerevan, brought prior experience from building and selling three tech startups, including Monitis, a cloud monitoring company. A computer science graduate, Avoyan had long harbored artistic aspirations but was steered toward technology by his family's expectations; his vision for Picsart blended these interests to democratize design tools. Co-founders Mehrabyan and Vardanyan, both former students of Avoyan at the American University of Armenia, contributed technical expertise in software development, helping to prototype the app's core editing features. Their collaboration transformed a personal motivation into a global platform, bootstrapped in its early years before attracting venture funding.[5][8][9] Under Avoyan's ongoing leadership as CEO and co-founder, Picsart has expanded significantly, relocating its headquarters to Miami, Florida in 2022 while maintaining a strong presence in Armenia. Artavazd Mehrabyan serves as Chief Technology Officer, overseeing product innovation, while Mikayel Vardanyan has transitioned to advisory and investment roles after early contributions to engineering and product development. The executive team, comprising over 1,300 employees as of 2024, focuses on integrating AI-driven features to sustain the company's growth as a leading creative ecosystem. Avoyan's emphasis on community and accessibility continues to guide strategic decisions, positioning Picsart as a competitor to traditional design software giants.[5][10][11][12]Scale and Global Reach
Picsart has established itself as one of the largest digital creation platforms, boasting over 150 million monthly active users who generate more than 1 billion edits each month.[13][1] The app has surpassed 2 billion downloads worldwide as of 2025, reflecting its widespread adoption across mobile and web platforms.[14] These metrics underscore Picsart's scale in the creative tools sector, where it ranks among the top downloaded applications globally.[15] The platform's global reach extends to active creators in 180 countries, supported by availability in over 30 languages to cater to diverse user bases.[1] While a significant portion of users originates from the United States, Picsart maintains strong engagement in regions across Asia, Europe, and beyond, with notable growth in markets like India, Indonesia, and China.[16] To support its worldwide operations, Picsart maintains its corporate headquarters in Miami, Florida, following a relocation in 2022 as part of its expansion strategy.[17] The company operates additional offices in key locations including Yerevan (Armenia), Berlin (Germany), Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca (Romania), London (United Kingdom), Madrid (Spain), and New York (United States), fostering a distributed team that spans multiple continents.[18] This network enables localized innovation and community engagement, contributing to Picsart's position as a truly global creative ecosystem.[19]History
Early Development (2011–2014)
Picsart was founded in November 2011 in Yerevan, Armenia, by entrepreneur Hovhannes Avoyan, who was motivated to create a safe and empowering platform for creative expression after his young daughter faced online bullying for sharing her artwork.[5] The company started as a bootstrapped venture with a small team of engineers, including Artavazd Mehrabyan, leveraging their expertise in Java to target the Android platform, where iPhones were less prevalent in the region.[5] The initial product, PicsArt Photo Studio, launched on Google Play in November 2011 as a freemium mobile app offering accessible photo-editing tools such as filters, drawing capabilities, collage makers, and clipart integration, with no user registration required for basic use.[20] Early monetization came through in-app advertisements, enabling profitability without external funding.[20] In its first year, Picsart achieved rapid organic growth through app store optimization and frequent updates, including weekly midnight releases to maintain featured status on Google Play.[5] By January 2013, the Android app had amassed 35 million downloads and attracted 2 million daily unique users, earning a 4.7-star rating from over 500,000 reviews and topping the photography category in multiple markets.[20] To expand its reach, Picsart released its iOS version in January 2013, replicating approximately 90% of the Android features and planning further enhancements for higher-resolution editing and tablet compatibility.[20] By April 2013, total installs exceeded 50 million, and the app began incorporating social community features to allow users to share and collaborate on edits.[21] The period culminated in 2014 with further platform diversification and accelerated user adoption, as Picsart launched support for Windows Phone in late 2013 and Windows 8 devices in January 2014, reaching 1 million installs on Windows Phone by mid-year.[22] The company surpassed 100 million installs on Google Play and achieved 175 million total downloads by its third anniversary in November 2014, supported by translations into 50 languages to foster global accessibility.[22] At that point, Picsart had nearly 20 million registered users, 50 million monthly active users, and around 7 million monthly installs, solidifying its position as a leading mobile creative tool while maintaining a lean team of about 20-25 employees across Armenia and the U.S.[22]Expansion and Milestones (2015–2020)
In 2015, Picsart secured significant funding to fuel its platform expansion, including a $10 million Series A round led by Sequoia Capital and Insight Partners in February, followed by a $15 million round in June led by Insight Venture Partners and other investors.[23][24] These investments enabled enhancements to its mobile editing tools and community features, driving rapid user adoption. By February 2015, the platform had 60 million monthly active users.[25] Later that year, the platform continued to grow its user base, solidifying Picsart's position as a leading photo editing app.[26] The period from 2016 to 2017 marked accelerated growth in user base and functionality. In April 2016, Picsart raised a $20 million Series B round led by DCM Ventures and Signatures Capital, which supported international expansion and feature development.[23] By the end of 2016, the platform reached 75 million MAU.[3] In October 2017, Picsart announced it had surpassed 100 million MAU, attributing the milestone to its creative community tools and viral sharing features that attracted users in over 180 countries.[27] This growth positioned Picsart as one of the top photo and video editing apps globally, with a focus on user-generated content and social integration. From 2018 to 2020, Picsart emphasized monetization, AI integration, and platform diversification amid rising competition. In 2018, the company introduced paid subscription models, such as Gold and Platinum tiers, offering premium tools like ad-free editing and exclusive stickers, which boosted revenue while maintaining a freemium core.[3] User engagement continued to climb, reaching over 130 million MAU by March 2019, alongside one billion monthly edits processed on the platform.[3][16] By 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the app hit over one billion total downloads and built a library of 50 billion computer-generated images through community contributions.[3] That year, Picsart launched its full web platform, extending accessibility beyond mobile and enabling collaborative editing for a broader creator ecosystem.[3] These developments underscored Picsart's evolution from a mobile editor to a comprehensive creative suite.Modern Era and Innovations (2021–present)
In August 2021, Picsart secured $130 million in Series C funding led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2, achieving a valuation exceeding $1 billion and unicorn status, which enabled accelerated investment in platform expansion and AI capabilities.[13][28] This funding round brought the company's total capital raised to $195 million, supporting enhancements to its creative ecosystem for over 150 million monthly active users at the time.[13] In February 2022, Picsart relocated its headquarters to Miami Beach, Florida, to bolster its U.S. presence and innovation efforts, coinciding with the launch of initial generative AI features, including the AI Image Generator introduced in November 2022, which allowed users to create images from text prompts.[17][29] In 2023, the company expanded its AI offerings significantly with the release of Picsart Ignite, a suite of over 20 tools for generating videos, backgrounds, GIFs, stickers, avatars, ads, and logos, aimed at streamlining content creation for creators and businesses.[30][31] By August 2023, Picsart's generative AI had produced over 500 million images, averaging 2 million per day, highlighting its rapid adoption.[32] In 2024, Picsart prioritized ethical AI development by partnering with Getty Images to launch a commercially safe AI image generation tool trained on licensed content, addressing copyright concerns in generative models.[33] The company also introduced "Smart Background," an AI feature for automated product photography editing, and collaborated with Monotype to integrate advanced typography options, positioning Picsart as a competitor to Adobe and Canva.[34][35] Additionally, Picsart developed proprietary AI models using its own data to mitigate legal risks associated with third-party training datasets.[36] Its "Creative AI Playbook" outlined visions for contextual intelligence and AI agents to enhance user workflows.[37] Entering 2025, Picsart hosted the Ignite Innovation Summit in June, unveiling upgrades to its AI-powered ad-making suite, including enhanced logo and brand kit creation, an AI assistant, and Magic Workflow for conversational design.[38][39] The company launched the 2025 Launch Pack, a set of tools to support business growth through AI-driven content generation, and introduced advanced features like high-resolution text-to-image synthesis, further democratizing professional-grade creativity.[40] In July 2025, Picsart announced upgrades to its ad-making suite, enhancing logo and brand kit tools with AI assistance. Later that year, in November, at Web Summit in Lisbon, the company launched Picsart Assistant and Picsart Flows, AI-powered tools combining conversational intelligence for vibe design at scale, and hosted a Masterclass with Monotype on typography. Additionally, Picsart partnered with Amaze to enable users to turn designs into physical and digital merchandise for global e-commerce. These innovations reflect Picsart's shift toward an all-in-one AI platform, serving marketers, entrepreneurs, and individual creators with scalable, accessible tools.[41][39][42][43]Products and Services
Core Editing Tools
Picsart's core editing tools form the foundation of its photo and video editing capabilities, enabling users to perform basic manipulations without relying on advanced artificial intelligence features. These tools are designed for accessibility across mobile apps and the web-based editor, allowing seamless adjustments to images and videos through an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. Key functionalities include cropping, resizing, and rotating images to fit specific dimensions or compositions, which help users prepare content for social media or print. For instance, the crop tool offers preset aspect ratios for platforms like Instagram or TikTok, ensuring precise framing without distortion.[44] Adjustment tools allow fine-tuning of visual elements such as brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpness, providing control over exposure and color balance to enhance clarity and mood. Users can apply these via sliders for real-time previews, making it straightforward to correct underexposed photos or boost vibrancy in landscapes. Color grading options extend this further, enabling selective edits to highlights, shadows, and midtones, which mimic professional post-processing techniques. Additionally, perspective correction straightens horizons and aligns vertical lines, useful for architectural shots or product photography.[45] Effects and filters constitute another pillar, with a library of preset options ranging from vintage sepia tones to high-contrast black-and-white conversions. These can be customized in intensity to avoid over-editing, preserving the original image's integrity while adding stylistic flair. For depth and focus, blur tools simulate bokeh effects or soften backgrounds manually, complementing selective sharpening for subject emphasis.[44] Layer-based additions empower creative layering, where users insert text with customizable fonts, colors, and alignments to create captions or graphics. Stickers and overlays, drawn from an extensive community library, allow decoration with shapes, icons, or patterns that can be resized, rotated, or blended for composite designs. The collage maker integrates these by arranging multiple images into grids or freeform layouts, supporting border additions and spacing adjustments for polished montages. Basic drawing tools, including brushes and erasers, enable freehand annotations or masking, while flip and mirror functions provide symmetry for symmetrical edits.[46] These core tools support batch editing for efficiency, applying uniform changes across multiple files, which is particularly valuable for content creators managing large volumes. Overall, Picsart emphasizes user-friendliness, with undo/redo histories and non-destructive editing to encourage experimentation without permanent alterations.[47]AI-Powered Features
Picsart integrates artificial intelligence across its editing suite to automate complex tasks, enabling users to generate, enhance, and manipulate images and videos with minimal manual input. These features leverage machine learning models for tasks such as content creation, object detection, and style transfer, making advanced editing accessible to non-professionals. As of 2025, Picsart's AI tools support a wide range of applications, from social media content to professional design, and include integrations with external AI providers like OpenAI for expanded capabilities.[48][49] One core feature is the AI Image Generator, which converts text prompts into custom visuals, allowing users to describe scenes, styles, or concepts for instant creation of high-resolution images. This tool supports various artistic styles, is powered by proprietary models in partnership with Getty Images for commercially safe outputs since 2024, and offers options for fine-tuning such as aspect ratios and detail levels.[50][51][52] Similarly, the AI Face Generator and AI Tattoo Generator extend this functionality to specialized outputs, such as personalized avatars or temporary tattoo designs applied to photos.[50][51] AI enhancement tools form another pillar, with the AI Image Enhancer using algorithms to upscale resolution, sharpen details, and restore clarity in low-quality photos without artifacts. The Object Remover employs semantic segmentation to detect and erase unwanted elements, seamlessly filling gaps with contextually appropriate backgrounds. Background-related features include the AI Background Remover, which isolates subjects via edge detection, and the AI Background Generator, which creates matching environments based on the image's mood or theme.[48] For transformative edits, AI Replace enables face swapping, hair color changes, and prop additions through generative inpainting, analyzing facial landmarks and contextual elements for realistic results. AI Filters apply generative styles, converting photos into artistic renders like oil paintings or cyberpunk aesthetics, while adapting to the input's composition. In video editing, AI Video Filters stylize footage in real-time, supporting effects like animation transitions or mood-based overlays.[53][54][55] Recent advancements include the 2025 integration of OpenAI's GPT Image, which enhances Picsart's generators by incorporating DALL-E capabilities for more nuanced text-to-image outputs directly within the platform. Additionally, AI Avatars allow users to create stylized digital personas from selfies, useful for profile pictures or virtual representations. In November 2025, Picsart launched the Picsart Assistant, an AI tool for conversational vibe design that generates editable layered visuals, and Picsart Flows, an infinite canvas for collaborative automated creation with model selection and real-time editing. These features prioritize user privacy through on-device processing where possible.[49][51][42]Community and Collaboration Tools
Picsart fosters a vibrant creative ecosystem through various community and collaboration tools that enable users to share, edit, and co-create visual content. Central to this is the #FreeToEdit initiative, launched to promote communal editing, where creators tag images with the hashtag to invite others to download and remix them freely.[56] This feature builds on Picsart's social foundation, encouraging inspiration and iterative collaboration among its user base.[57] Remix Galleries extend this by aggregating all versions of a remixed image into a single view, showcasing the evolution of a project and crediting original creators through automatic tagging. Users can browse these galleries to discover new edits, follow contributing artists, and participate in ongoing remixes, which has helped connect millions of monthly users in shared creative endeavors.[57] Complementing these is Remix Chat, a group messaging tool introduced in 2017 that supports up to 50 participants in real-time photo editing sessions. Within chats, users apply filters, effects, stickers, and other Picsart tools directly to shared images, facilitating collaborative workflows for personal or group projects.[58] In 2023, Picsart introduced Spaces, interest-based in-app communities designed to enhance social collaboration around specific passions such as generative AI, pets, K-pop, or nature photography. These spaces allow users to post, like, comment, and remix content without needing to join formally, while members can create posts from their camera rolls, editor outputs, or profiles.[59] Available initially in select countries including the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia across iOS, Android, and web platforms, Spaces include reporting mechanisms to ensure safe interactions and plans for user-moderated custom communities.[60] Early adoption showed significant impact, with users generating 15 times more content and achieving 20 times higher post engagement compared to non-Spaces interactions, doubling industry-standard rates.[59][60] These tools are underpinned by Picsart's community guidelines, which emphasize respectful collaboration, proper crediting via tags, and reporting of violations to maintain a positive environment for over 150 million monthly active users.[61] By integrating editing capabilities with social features, Picsart positions itself as a platform where individual creativity scales through collective input, supporting everything from casual remixes to themed group challenges.[62]Business Operations
Funding and Valuation
Picsart has raised a total of $195 million in equity funding across multiple rounds since its founding in 2011. The company initially bootstrapped its operations before securing its first institutional investment in 2015. This early funding supported platform development and user acquisition, with subsequent rounds focusing on international expansion, particularly in Asia, and enhancements to its creative tools.[13] The company's funding trajectory includes several early-stage rounds. In February 2015, Picsart secured $10 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital, which enabled initial scaling of its mobile photo-editing app. This was followed by a $15 million venture round in June 2015 from undisclosed investors, bringing the total raised to $25 million and supporting community-building features. In April 2016, Picsart raised $20 million from DCM Ventures and Siguler Guff & Company, aimed at expanding its user base in markets like China and Japan. By 2019, the company had accumulated approximately $45 million, after which it raised an additional $20 million in a Series B extension in July 2019 to fuel product innovation and global growth, valuing the company at around $600 million at that time.[63][24][64][16][23] Picsart's most significant funding came in August 2021 with a $130 million Series C round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with participation from new investors G Squared and Tribe Capital, as well as existing backers like Insight Partners, DCM Ventures, and Sequoia Capital. This round valued the company at over $1 billion, achieving unicorn status, and was used to accelerate AI-powered features and creator ecosystem development amid a reported annual revenue run rate exceeding $100 million. No major equity rounds have been announced since 2021, though secondary transactions and option exercises, such as a $9.24 million warrant in April 2022, have occurred. As of 2025, Picsart's valuation remains estimated at approximately $1.5 billion based on market data and share pricing, reflecting sustained growth in its user base and monetization.[13][65][9]| Round | Date | Amount | Lead Investors | Valuation (Post-Money) | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Series A | February 2015 | $10M | Sequoia Capital | Not disclosed | Platform scaling and app development[63] |
| Venture (Early Stage) | June 2015 | $15M | Undisclosed | Not disclosed | Community features and user growth[24] |
| Series B | April 2016 | $20M | DCM Ventures, Siguler Guff | Not disclosed | Asia market expansion[64] |
| Series B Extension | July 2019 | $20M | Undisclosed | $600M | Product innovation and global reach[23] |
| Series C | August 2021 | $130M | SoftBank Vision Fund 2 | Over $1B | AI enhancements and creator platform growth[13] |