Jonathan Oringer has a billion reasons to smile.
The founder of the red-hot stock photography agency Shutterstock became the first billionaire minted from New York’s Silicon Alley yesterday as shares of his company rose to a record high.
Oringer, 39, (left) owns about 55 percent of Shutterstock, which has about 28 million licensed photos, illustrations and videos for sale on its website. His 18.5 million shares, which he controls through closely held investment company Pixel Holdings, were valued at just over $1 billion when shares closed at $55.78.
“I’ve never been very flashy or high-profile,” Oringer said in an interview at his 34th-floor office in New York’s financial district last month. “I’ve always stayed under the radar.”
Shutterstock has more than tripled since selling shares at $17 in an initial public offering last October.
Andre Sequin, an analyst at RBC Capital Market, told Bloomberg that Oringer is the first billionaire to be created in Silicon Alley, a collection of technology startups in New York.
Oringer’s wealth surge comes amid a bull market for acquisitions of New York technology companies. Stratasys Ltd., an Eden Prairie, Minn.-based maker of printers that can create 3-D objects, agreed to buy Brooklyn-based MakerBot Industries for $403 million last week.
In May, Yahoo! Inc. bought New York-based blogging network Tumblr for $1.1 billion.
Oringer founded Shutterstock in 2003 with 30,000 of his own pictures.
“It’s one of the most solid companies in the Internet space,” said Sequin. “When you compare it to the recent tech IPOs, it’s one of the few that has a proven track record of profitability.”
Oringer’s rising fortune coincides with an uptick in New York’s technology sector.
“There is a change going on in the city that is leveraging the inherent strength in New York,” said Frank Rimalovski, managing director of New York University’s Innovation Venture Fund, which manages $20 million to invest in technologies developed by NYU’s students and faculty.
One of Oringer’s favorite pieces of technology is the AS350 B3 AStar Eurocopter helicopter that he owns.
“I don’t own a helicopter because I want someone to bring me places quickly,” he said. “I own it because it’s an incredible machine that I like to fly and learn about. I like the complexity of it.”
Oringer said has no plans to vacate Manhattan by chopper for the West Coast.
Bloomberg