99designs raises $35 Million with Canadian connections

Yesterday Accel Partners invested $35 million in the crowdsource design service 99designs. A handful of strategic angel investors also participated in the round including Vancouver-based Flickr founder Stewart Butterfield.

Butterfield recently raised a significant round from Accel Partners himself for his gaming startup Tiny Speck.

But the Canadian connections for the Melbourne, Australia based 99designs don't end there. 99designs spun out of Sitepoint.com - a massive web community and information site which was co-founded by Vancouver entrepreneur Matt Mickiewicz and Australian Mark Harbottle. The pair are also responsible for website marketplace Flippa.com.

According to TechCrunch "a good portion of the cash will go to the founders" which no longer have an operational role at 99designs. It should be interesting to see if some of that cash finds its way back into the Vancouver startup community in the form of angel investments.