The design startup to watch

Framer's had a big year.

Last December, the Dutch design startup secured a $7.7 million Series A to level up against competitors like InVision, Adobe, Sketch and Figma.

In September, the company officially launched Framer X, a React-based interactive design that marries the design and development workflow (after some 50K designers signed up for the beta version 👀). Framer also hosted its first-ever design conference in Amsterdam to celebrate the launch. 🎉

Some initial reactions to Framer X:

“Totally, totally mindblown by Framer X. This is the design tool you have been waiting for.” - Jon Gold

“Framer X is without-a-doubt the future of what product design tools will be. It's really the little things that make this apparent.” - Tanner Christensen

In November, the company raised an additional $24 million and launched a beta of its Team Store, a way for teams of any size to build and scale design systems.

What ultimately sets Framer X apart from competing tools is that it's built with both designers and engineers in mind. The Team Store is where it all comes together. Engineers can write and add React components to their team's private space and designers can prototype with those components or design their own.

In the long-term, Framer wants to power the next generation of design systems, giving every company the ability to innovate at the level of design-forward companies like Slack, Dropbox and Facebook.

Today’s Daily Digest was crafted by Product Hunt and sponsored by our friends at Framer. Psst! They've grown their team by 50 percent this year and are still hiring across all teams. 😊

AR glasses startup North acquired the tech and patents behind Intel's canceled Vaunt yesterday. The news comes just a few months after North came out of stealth (with $140M in funding!!) to launch ‘Focals,’ a sort of next-gen Google Glass. 

P.S. They look nothing like Google Glass.