How Freepik Scaled AI Innovation at Lightning Speed Without Breaking Payment Infrastructure

Founded in 2010 as a search engine for free graphic resources, Freepik has grown into a leading design platform serving creators worldwide. But by 2021, the company faced a perfect storm of business transformation and operational complexity that would test every aspect of its infrastructure.

In just two and a half years, the Spanish technology company executed a complete 180-degree pivot from a stock content platform to a generative AI company. This transformation brought three critical challenges that threatened its ability to scale globally while serving over 500 employees and millions of users.

The Challenge

Accelerated Market Dynamics

The AI market demanded unprecedented speed. Freepik went from making pricing changes monthly to reacting in days, sometimes implementing pricing changes and new products within 24 hours to stay competitive. As Senior Product Manager Ignacio Marcos explains, "Before we talked about months and in very little time we've gone to weeks, even the latest weeks we've gone to talking about days. That means that the changes we have to make...we have to react in days. We have to change pricing in days, create new products."

Global Payment Complexity

Freepik operates on a sophisticated freemium model with multiple subscription tiers ranging from $9 to $250 per month for individual users, teams (for agencies), and Enterprise subscriptions. Their global footprint spans diverse markets with varying payment preferences and regulatory requirements.

With a large presence in North America, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific, Freepik faced distinct payment challenges in each region. The company needed to optimize conversion rates in its top markets—the USA, Brazil, and India—while supporting rapid growth across Latin America.

In North America, they needed to offer payment methods that appealed to young, tech-savvy creators. Latin America required secure, local payment methods across diverse markets, including Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Central America. Meanwhile, Asia presented the challenge of navigating strict banking regulations in China and India while maintaining frictionless user experiences that wouldn't drive customers away.

Evolving User Base

The pivot fundamentally changed Freepik's entire customer segment. Its traditional stock content users gave way to younger, modern creators with different payment preferences and expectations. This shift added extreme complexity to how quickly the company needed to evolve its value proposition and payment experience.

The Solution

Building Scalable Payment Infrastructure

Since July 2021, Freepik has partnered with Chargebee as its strategic billing and monetization platform, implementing a comprehensive solution that includes multi-currency pricing, multiple payment gateway support, and multi-business entity management. From day one, Freepik was clear about its growth ambitions and market expansion needs. What followed was a partnership in which Chargebee prioritized solutions within its product roadmap that directly addressed Freepik's regional payment challenges.

The platform currently supports credit card processing through Stripe and digital wallet options, including Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal. Looking ahead, Freepik plans to integrate dLocal as a payment processor for Latin America and potentially India, add Venmo for the US market, and implement Brazil-specific options like Boleto and Pix—all through Chargebee's unified platform.

This collaboration enabled Freepik to diversify payment methods tailored to each regional market while adapting to local banking regulations and user preferences. Perhaps most importantly, it allowed them to maintain the agility necessary to respond to rapid market changes while freeing internal resources to focus on core AI product development rather than payment infrastructure.

The partnership runs deep. As Marcos explains, 'In this kind of business, covering the last mile is the key. It's the same for payments—if we offer users the most locally used payments, we're going to make them happy.' The ROI is clear: “If we can do it through Chargebee, for us it's awesome, because we're saving time, and that means money and also momentum.”

The Results

North Star Metric Achievement

Conversion rate became Freepik's primary success metric, delivering dual benefits that directly impacted their bottom line. High conversion rates confirmed that web traffic was successfully converting to subscribers, while strong conversion rates indicated positive payment experiences that built crucial user trust and credibility. Freepik tracks Net Promoter Score (NPS) as a key user experience metric, with payment flow friction being a critical component. As Marcos explains, "If we have a high conversion rate, it means that all the traffic we're bringing to the web is converting into subscribers, which is very good for business."

Strategic Business Impact

The partnership freed internal resources to focus on AI innovation and rapid product iteration, enabling Freepik to complete major acquisitions, including EyeEm's 160 million stock photos in 2023 and AI upscaling startup Magnific in 2024. It established what Marcos describes as one of Freepik's deepest strategic partnerships while creating a scalable payment infrastructure that supports their aggressive market timelines.

The depth of integration speaks to the partnership's success. "I can't think of many services or agreements we have with other partners within Freepik that are so deep, like the one we have with Chargebee," Marcos states. "We can't live without Chargebee."

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