99designs, the largest online graphic design marketplace in the world, today launched localized Spanish-language versions of its service in Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Colombia. The company has appointed a Regional Manager for Latin America to manage the new sites, and will now offer Spanish-language support and local currency capability to customers and designers.

“The establishment of new government initiatives to fuel business innovation and a significant increase in venture capital investments in Latin America over the past several years has set the stage for tremendous expansion in the region’s startup and small business sectors,” said 99designs President and CEO Patrick Llewellyn. “We’re excited to help Latin America’s entrepreneurs source quality, affordable graphic design by connecting them with thousands of talented designers from their own countries and around the world.”

99designs has named Angela Peña its Regional Manager for Latin America. Peña will be responsible for overseeing 99designs’ expansion throughout the region, including managing 99designs’ Latin American design community, leading marketing efforts, and building strategic local partnerships with startups, design groups and other organizations. Peña previously worked as Country Manager for Latin America and Spain at Talenthouse, an online marketplace connecting artists across a range of disciplines with celebrities and major brands.

“Having worked for several years with an amazing and diverse range of graphic designers in Latin America, I am eager to connect those designers with 99designs’ large and fast-growing pool of global clientele,” said Peña. “Our new Spanish-language sites will help designers and clients in Latin American work more efficiently on 99designs and develop longer-term collaborative working relationships with each other.”

In conjunction with the launch of its Latin American sites, 99designs also debuted a localized version of its site in Spain and a site for Spanish speakers in the United States. 99designs’ Spanish-language expansion comes fast on the heels of the marketplace’s introduction of localized versions of its service in Germany, France and Italy in the preceding six months.

To celebrate the launch of its Spanish-language sites and the strength of its Spanish-speaking designers, 99designs is sponsoring a “99designs Habla Español” t-shirt design contest. Designers are invited to create original t-shirts designs incorporating the phrase “99designs Habla Español” and will award up to five winners, each of whom will receive $500 and be featured across 99designs blog and social media channels.

99designs has hosted 200,000 graphic design contests for startups, small businesses and other organizations worldwide since its founding in 2008. In the same period, the company has paid out $50 million to its community of more than 210,000 graphic designers.

About 99designs

99designs is the world's largest online graphic design marketplace, connecting businesses looking for design work with more than 210,000 graphic designers from 192 countries around the world. Businesses can source graphic design work quickly and affordably by launching design contests to the community, working 1-on-1 with individual designers, or purchasing design templates from 99designs' readymade logo store. The company was co-founded by serial entrepreneurs Mark Harbottle and Matt Mickiewicz (SitePoint, Flippa), and is backed by Accel Partners and angel investors Michael Dearing (eBay, Harrison Metal), Dave Goldberg (Survey Monkey), Stewart Butterfield (Flickr, Tiny Speck) and Anthony Casalena (Squarespace). To learn more about 99designs, including where the company is hiring, visit 99designs.com.