Creo

What Creo does

Creo is a Canadian manufacturer of computer-to-plate (CTP) digital products for the commercial printing industry, founded in 1983 and headquartered in Burnaby, British Columbia. The company's core offering historically centered on platesetters, prepress workflow software, and related digital imaging equipment that allowed commercial printers to transfer digital page data directly to printing plates, eliminating film-based intermediates and enabling shorter print runs with higher quality and consistency.

The company scaled through venture funding in the mid-1990s, raising a $10 million round led by Jerusalem Global Ventures in March 1994 with a follow-on from TCV in 1996, and reached a headcount of 1,001-5,000 employees while operating publicly on NASDAQ under the ticker CREO. The revenue model is inferred to be a combination of B2B capital equipment sales (CTP platesetters and digital front-ends) plus recurring or consumables revenue from plates, chemistry, and workflow software licensing to commercial printers and print service providers. The company is now delisted from NASDAQ, and no post-delisting operational, financial, or strategic disclosures are available in the supplied data.

Name

Creo

Website

https://creo.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1983

Headcount range

1,001–5,000 employees

Short description

Creo is a Canadian manufacturer of computer-to-plate digital products and prepress workflow solutions for the commercial printing industry, headquartered in Burnaby, British Columbia, and serving print service providers worldwide.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Digital Prepress Equipment

NAICS

Support Activities for Printing (32312)

SIC

Printing Trades Machinery & Equipment (3555)

akta.pro primary industry

Prepress, Plate-Making & Artwork Services (IMALAKAM)

Keywords

• Computer-to-plate systems
• Digital platesetters
• Prepress imaging equipment
• Commercial printing hardware
• Thermal imaging plates

Headquarters

HQ city

Burnaby

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Operations, Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Core offering

Creo manufactures computer-to-plate (CTP) digital imaging systems for the commercial printing industry. Its hardware and related prepress technology enable commercial printers to produce offset printing plates directly from digital files, replacing film-based platemaking workflows. The company is headquartered in Burnaby, Canada, and was founded in 1983.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Computer-to-Plate (CTP) Digital Imaging Systems

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Recent moves3 records

Broad incumbents

• Xerox: Provides production digital printing systems and workflow solutions targeting the same commercial print customers, representing an indirect competitive alternative to offset/CTP production.
• Eastman Kodak: Creo's parent company and broader print/advanced materials incumbent that markets platesetters alongside offset presses, inkjet, and consumables across the same customer base.
• Fujifilm: Sells CTP platesetters, plates, inkjet presses, and workflow software; directly overlaps with Creo's platesetter business while also operating in much larger imaging, healthcare, and materials businesses.
• HP (Indigo / PageWide): Major provider of digital presses (Indigo electrophotography and PageWide inkjet) that compete with offset/CTP workflows for commercial print volume, indirectly capping Creo's TAM.
• Konica Minolta: Sells production digital presses, workflow, and related prepress technology to commercial printers, competing for the same customers and budget pool as Creo's platesetters.

Emerging players

• Esko (Danaher): Supplies prepress, plate-making, and workflow software focused on packaging converters — overlapping with Creo's prepress technology stack for the packaging subset of customers.
• Presstek: Specialist in CTP and DI (direct-imaging) plate-making equipment for small- and mid-size commercial printers; competes with Creo in the small-format and on-demand CTP segment.

Direct peers

• SCREEN Holdings (Screen Graphic Solutions): Japanese manufacturer of CTP platesetters, workflow solutions, and prepress equipment that competes with Creo for the same commercial offset and packaging printers worldwide.
• Heidelberger Druckmaschinen: Global manufacturer of offset press equipment and prepress/platesetting solutions that compete head-to-head with Creo's CTP systems for the same commercial and packaging print customers.
• Agfa-Gevaert: Produces CTP platesetters, offset plates, and prepress/workflow software, making it a close functional competitor to Creo's platesetting and prepress offering.

Market position

Strengths3 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights4 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/creo-web-agency

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments1 record

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Creo