Pixate
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
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Sections to complete：02 · 05
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Pixate was a Palo Alto mobile-app prototyping startup founded in May 2012 (Y Combinator Summer 2012) by CEO Paul Colton. Its flagship products — Pixate Engine for iOS and later Pixate Studio — let designers create and preview complex native interactions and animations for iOS and Android without writing code, using a CSS-based styling engine. It raised early funding through a successful 2012 Kickstarter campaign and a $3.8 million round from Accel Partners in 2013, and became an essential workflow tool for tens of thousands of designers, from solo startups to global corporations.
02 / FAILURE REASONS
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03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
Pixate founded in May 2012 in Palo Alto; joins Y Combinator Summer 2012 and raises early funding via Kickstarter.
- Accel funding
Pixate raises $3.8 million from Accel Partners.
- Acquired by Google
On July 21, 2015, Google acquires Pixate; CEO Paul Colton announces the team is joining Google's design team. Pixate Studio becomes free and cloud pricing is cut.
- Product end-of-life
In October 2016 Google shuts down Pixate's services (end of life October 31, 2016) so the team can focus on new prototyping-related products, including Google's Material design tools.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
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Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN / AFTERMATH
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