Kiwi Innovation Goes Global: Lumin Reaches 100 Million Users Milestone

CHRISTCHURCH CENTRAL CITY, NEW ZEALAND, December 11, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- From a lightbulb moment during Christchurch’s earthquake rebuild to 100 million users worldwide, Lumin has emerged as one of New Zealand’s most recent technology success stories. The document workflow platform, which began as a solution to bridge the gap between paper blueprints and digital plans, today announced reaching 100 million users globally.

Founded by Max Ferguson while studying at Stanford University in 2014, Lumin’s journey from a dorm room startup to a global document management ecosystem exemplifies New Zealand’s growing influence in the global technology sector.

"People were just so fed up with USB drives, Microsoft Word crashing, and manually passing file copies around,” reflects Ferguson. “I saw a world ready to embrace cloud solutions, though I couldn’t have predicted how right we were.”

The company’s rapid ascent began with acquiring one million users within its first month of operation. However, it was a bold gamble in 2019 – completely rebuilding the platform from scratch – that truly transformed the company’s trajectory. "We pretty much spent every single dollar we made from third-party ads,” Ferguson recalls about the massive redevelopment effort.

That risk paid off dramatically. When the global pandemic hit, Lumin’s new platform was perfectly positioned for the remote work revolution. “Because we invested so heavily into the product, we just saw continued growth,” notes Ferguson. “Suddenly, we weren’t just an app; we were a tool that teams relied on daily.”

Today, Lumin has evolved far beyond its origins as a PDF editor. With products like Lumin Sign, Templates Discovery, and the Lumin Sign API, it has become a start–to–end document management ecosystem serving businesses worldwide.

The company’s success has broader implications for New Zealand’s technology sector, proving a prime example of how Kiwi ingenuity can create solutions with worldwide impact. Maintaining strong roots in Christchurch, Lumin has helped establish New Zealand as a serious player in the global SaaS industry, while actively investing in local talent.

The company’s growing Christchurch-based team demonstrates its commitment to hiring and upskilling New Zealand professionals while delivering innovation to customers worldwide.

"We’ve gone from launching products that were barely functional but proved a concept to releasing products that are super reliable and that people depend on,” Ferguson says. “But our core mission hasn’t changed – we’re still focused on solving real problems and making work easier for millions of people every day."

Majella Dempsey
Lumin
majella@luminpdf.com
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