Talenthouse was a social network site owned by Talenthouse AG, a public company based in Switzerland that also owns other services including EyeEm,

Ello Ello ( Brianzöö: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Lecco in the Italian region Lombardy, located about northeast of Milan and about southwest of Lecco Lecco (, , ; ) is a city of approximately 47,000 inhabitants in Lom ...

, Jovoto, Zoopa, and Creative Commission.

History

Talenthouse was co-founded in 2009 by Co-CEOs Amos Pizzey and Roman Scharf. The Talenthouse headquarters were originally located in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, USA with offices in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. In December 2019, Talenthouse was merged along with Ello and Zooppa into a new company named TLNT Holdings. On 25 May 2021, investment company New Value AG acquired TLNT Holdings, Talenthouse, EyeEm, and Jovoto. On 24 November 2021, New Value AG changed its name to Talenthouse AG In March 2022, Talenthouse AG listed shares on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

Funding

As of May 2012, Talenthouse had received $15.1 million of funding to date with a recently closed $4.2 million

Series B A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the ...

round. Investors include Eric Schmidt's Innovation Endeavors,

Reliance Entertainment Reliance Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. is an Indian media and entertainment company. It is a division of Reliance Group, handling its media and entertainment business, across content and distribution platforms. The company was founded on 15 February ...

, 3TS Cisco Growth Fund,

Brett Ratner Brett Ratner (born March 28, 1969) is an American film director and producer. He directed the Rush Hour (film series), ''Rush Hour'' film series, ''The Family Man'', ''Red Dragon (2002 film), Red Dragon'', ''X-Men: The Last Stand'', ''Tower Heist ...

, Jean Pigozzi and Estée Lauder chairman William P. Lauder. On May 20, 2014, the company announced securing a $10 Million Series C Funding round with investors Dave Stewart and Gerard Butler In March 2019, Animoca invested US$2 million for 448,413 shares of preferred stock in Talenthouse.

Acquisitions

In 2018, Talenthouse acquired the social network Ello for an undisclosed amount. In June 2021, Talenthouse acquired EyeEm for close to $40 million. In April 2022, it was announced Talenthouse had acquired the

-headquartered creative hiring platform, Creative Commission.

Recognition

In May 2012, Talenthouse was named a Winner of the

Red Herring A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important question. It may be either a logical fallacy or a literary device that leads readers or audiences toward a false conclusion. A red herring may be used intentiona ...

Top 100 Award.

Controversy

In February 2023, many creatives who had worked for Talenthouse came forward to reveal that they had not been paid for the work they had done. Roman Scharf, the co-founder of Talenthouse and chairman of the board, said: "We are extremely sorry for this unacceptable delay in payments and any inconvenience and upset it has caused. We take this matter extremely seriously and are working on a long-term robust solution that will benefit all Talenthouse creatives. This solution is well advanced and we plan to announce it soon." Whilst some clients have since paid artists directly, as of February 2023 the issue is believed to be ongoing with numerous artists working for other clients still owed money. As of July 2023 Talenthouse is going through financial restructuring and seeking outside investors. Currently the Talenthouse website is unavailable and other sites hosted and maintained by Talenthouse like Ello.co are also unreachable. No comments have been made by Talenthouse on the status or the future of the company, its websites or the content people had stored on their platforms.

References

{{reflist Companies based in Los Angeles Internet properties established in 2009 American social networking websites Blog software Android (operating system) software Blog hosting services Privately held companies based in California