an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . september 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message giphy founded 2013 founders jace cooke & alex chung products gif platform services searching sharing and browsing animated gifs website www.giphy.com giphy is an online database and search engine that allows users to search for and share animated gif files . contents 1 beginnings and early history 2 growth 3 partnerships 4 present day 5 references 6 external links beginnings and early history edit alex chung . giphy was founded by alex chung and jace cooke in february 2013 . 1 2 3 the idea for the business came when the pair was having breakfast musing on the rising trend of purely visual communication . 1 when chung and cooke first launched giphy the website functioned solely as a search engine for gifs . growth edit in august 2013 giphy expanded beyond a search engine to allow users to post embed and share gifs on facebook . 4 5 6 giphy was then recognized as a top 100 website of 2013 according to pc magazine . 7 three months later giphy integrated with twitter to enable users to share gifs by simply sharing a gif s url . 8 in may 2014 giphy raised 2.4 million in a series a funding round from investors including quire caa ventures rre ventures lerer hippeau ventures and betaworks . 9 10 in january 2015 giphy received another 17 million in a series b funding round led by lightspeed venture partners with participation from general catalyst and former investors . 10 in addition giphy raised a large portion of the series b round via alphaworks s equity crowdfunding platform . 11 in march 2015 giphy acquired nutmeg a gif messaging service as one of the company s first major steps towards the mobile industry . 12 this coincided with the launch of facebook messenger s own development platform in which giphy joined a few exclusive apps in its debut . 12 in august 2015 giphy launched its second mobile app giphy cam which allows users to create and share gifs on a social network . 13 in february 2016 giphy raised 55 million in funding at a 300 million valuation . 14 partnerships edit giphy partners with brands to host gifs that can be shared as marketing promotions via social media channels . 15 the company also created artist profiles on the website which allow gifs to be attributed to the artist s who created them . 16 in september 2014 giphy partnered with line to host the inaugural sticker design competition . line and giphy enlisted a team of digital partners including tumblr fox adhd frederator cut & paste disambiguation needed new museum eyebeam rhizome the webby awards pratt disambiguation needed the huffington post and dribbble to support the event . 17 in august 2015 universal studios partnered with giphy to release six gifs promoting the new nwa based movie straight outta compton . 18 19 giphy has partnered with over 200 companies and brands to host all their existing content on their own branded channel . giphy s partners include disney calvin klein ge and pepsi . 20 21 22 present day edit today giphy s team consists of 65 people . the company s corporate headquarters are located in new york city ny . references edit a b alfonso iii fernando . meet giphy a gif lovers new best friend . daily dot . feb 5 2013 . franzen carl . new gif search engine giphy sees 30k visitors in first weekend . talking points memo . feb 4 2013 . webbys x grey goose alex chung of giphy final . vimeo may 2105 . gordon whitson . giphy embeds gifs on facebook is mankind s greatest achievement . life hacker . august 29 2014 . kastrenakes jacob . giphy brings animated gifs to facebook . the verge . august 29 2013 . dreyfuss emily . . alert gif s now work on facebook thanks to giphy . c net . august 29 2013 . undiscovered apps the top 100 websites of 2013 pcmag.com . pcmag . retrieved 20 november 2014 . yeung ken . this could get messy giphy brings animated gifs to your twitter timeline . . the next web . november 14 2013 . crook jordan . http techcrunch.com 2014 05 15 giphy the betaworks backed gif search engine raising 2 5 million series a giphy the betaworks backed gif search engine is raising 2.5 million in series a . tech crunch . may 15 2014 . a b giphy . crunchbase august 25 2105 . crook jordan . after an approach from facebook giphy raises 17m at an 80m valuation . tech crunch jan 29 2015 . a b crook jordan . giphy messenger giphys first mobile app brings gif search to facebook messenger . tech crunch march 25 2015 . crook jordan . giphy cam lets you create and share homemade gifs . tech crunch august 20 2105 . utc seth fiegerman2016 02 16 21 41 26 . while other startups struggle giphy lands 55 million in a week . mashable . retrieved 2016 04 04 . gap and other brands are already using facebook gifs . adweek . retrieved 20 november 2014 . giphy gif search engine rolls out private artist profiles to help organize monetize the gif community . techcrunch . retrieved 20 november 2014 . line & giphy fuel creativity to build a true global language . pr newswire . sep 25 2014 . holmes mannie . universal teams with giphy on straight outta compton . variety august 13 2105 . dove jackie . giphy and line jointly launch a new sticker pack for more animated madness . the next web april 2 . heine christopher . subway unleashes 73 gifs for januany campaign . ad week jan 14 2104 . johnson lauren . here s why gif s are back in style and bigger than ever for brands . ad week june 24 2104 . angio joe et al. digital maverick 2015 . details may 7 2105 . external links edit giphy giphy on twitter retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title giphy & oldid 740372827 categories internet search enginesinternet properties established in 20132013 establishments in new yorkhidden categories articles with a promotional tone from september 2015all articles with a 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