Etsy has acquired the four-person team behind photo collage-making app Mixel to build up its mobile team, Etsy confirmed on Tuesday.
By all appearances, the online crafts marketplace acquired Mixel not for its product, which allows users to collaboratively create, edit and share photo collages, but for its talent. Mixel's parent company, Lascaux Co., was co-founded in early 2011 by Khoi Vinh, the well-known former design director of the NYTimes.com (who will now assume the role of product design director for mobile at Etsy), and Scott Ostler, co-founder of real-time image sharing site dump.fm. The company's two employees, software developer Akiva Leffert and designer Roy Stanfield, will also be joining Etsy's mobile team.
Given Mixel's double focus on mobile and design, its team appears well qualified to take charge of Etsy's mobile strategy going forward. It's well-timed, too: Etsy expects to receive more traffic from mobile than desktop devices by the end of 2014, according to CTO Kellan Elliot-McCrea.
And what about Mixel? In a note posted to its website, Mixel promised users that they can continue to use the app to make and download collages, but the app's social features will soon be phased out. An Etsy spokesperson said that Etsy, for its part, has no intention of getting into the photo-sharing/collage business.