Our Investment in Framer: the only platform that designers and product teams will ever need
Amsterdamers Koen Bok and Jorn van Dijk exited their first company to Facebook where they worked on product, presenting ideas directly to Mark Zuckerberg. But these born entrepreneurs were not content to rest on their laurels, knowing that the product design process remains woefully fragmented despite the growing importance of product in all industries. They were driven to found again.
The world’s best technology companies have a large portion of their teams in product-related activities, while Fortune 500 companies still have very few product employees. That is despite the fact that every business is now a digital business. Great product design is increasingly becoming a major predictor of success for any company — users expect outstanding experiences and those incumbents who are slow to adapt lose to new digital-first challengers. Yet the path to make great products is complex. Designers may have to use several different software platforms across any of the eight stages of building a prototype. This complexity is further compounded during handovers and feedback processes, causing great ideas to get lost between the intention and execution of interactive product ideas.
Koen and Jorn decided to found Framer, with the aim of building the only platform that designers and product teams will ever need to collaborate to bring new, richer products to market faster.
Framer is already powering product design at some of the world’s most innovative companies, including Google, Facebook, Dropbox, Twitter, and Snap with Framer.
Framer X, launched in September, is a next-generation interactive design tool for designers, engineers, product managers, and production teams. Teams involved in product can now collaborate to create, import, publish and use brand assets and interactive components created by their own teams or the larger design community. From video players, live maps and data generators to UI Kits and interactive design systems, every package in the Framer X Store is configured to work out-of-the-box, so anyone can install, drag and drop them into their designs.
The company has also created a private design store for teams, launching in beta today. The Team Store will allow members of teams at the same company to collaborate and share everything from brand assets and design components to truly interactive design systems all within the platform.
Atomico is proud to announce our investment into Framer and these two ambitious, game-changing entrepreneurs and their world-class team. Welcome to the Atomico family.
