creative-software
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FLORA learned that creative control has a price
A New York startup wants to make AI a working studio for designers. Its most revealing lesson came from a feature it had to remove - and the professionals who asked for it back.
Polarr Taught the Machine to Learn Your Eye
A photo editor became a filter marketplace, a phone maker’s AI supplier, and finally a teacher for photographers’ own styles. Its next frame belongs to Pixieset.
LottieFiles and the business of a tiny moving heart
A little animation can create a surprisingly large amount of work. LottieFiles built a business around making that work disappear - from the first keyframe to the app in your hand.
Spline makes 3D a team sport
A black cube on an email company’s website explains Spline’s appeal: designers can build something that moves, reacts, and actually ships. Now the company is inviting AI into the same file.
Womp wants your next design to leave the screen
An artist’s frustration became a browser-based 3D tool. Now Womp is following its users into the less forgiving business of making things you can hold.
Lightricks made the selfie business pay. Now comes the $150 million AI bet.
Facetune helped turn a Jerusalem research team into a consumer software business. Now Lightricks is using that success to finance AI video - and preparing to separate the two businesses.
Disguise makes the show before the show
Before U2 filled Sphere with moving images, Disguise helped put the spectacle on a computer. Now the company is taking its stagecraft from server racks to laptops - without losing the plot, or the pixels.
The Software Behind the Shot You Swore Was Real
Foundry turned an in-house compositor and a collection of studio-born tools into the plumbing of modern visual effects. Its next act is a trickier one: adding AI and real-time production without breaking the pipelines artists already trust.
Boris FX Bought the Boring Parts of Hollywood - and Built a Creative Software Arsenal
For 30 years, Boris Yamnitsky has collected the unglamorous tools that make glamorous images possible. The result is a private software portfolio that sits inside Hollywood's favorite workflows - from a disappearing wire to a repaired soundtrack.
Canva Won the Template Era. Now It Wants the Rest of Your Workday
The Australian design platform made drag-and-drop creation ordinary. Its harder second act is to make one canvas useful for every brief, brand and business - without losing the beginners who built it.
Corel Corporation
Corel Corporation is a 40-year-old Ottawa-based software company behind a portfolio of iconic creativity and productivity brands - CorelDRAW, Painter, PaintShop Pro, VideoStudio, WordPerfect, WinZip and MindManager - used by more than 100 million people across 75+ countries. After a stint as KKR-owned 'Alludo,' Corel relaunched in May 2026 as an independent company backed by Vector Capital, with a strategy built on deepening customer experience, embedding AI across its products, and acquiring complementary brands.