Democratising access to studio-quality photography and generative AI: why we invested in PhotoRoom
Following on from the great coverage by TechCrunch, I wanted to share a few personal words on why Balderton chose to lead PhotoRoom’s $19M series A round.
For those not among PhotoRoom’s 40 million users (since its launch in 2020), PhotoRoom is an award-winning global photo utility platform that uses computer vision and deep learning to translate pixels into objects, drastically simplifying non-creative tasks like editing a background or removing unwanted features.
Yet, PhotoRoom is not your typical background removal app, and while it works perfectly to remove that stranger at the back of a holiday selfie, the app is best used as an AI-powered photo studio enabling sellers, small businesses, and marketplaces to create studio-quality images.
Its latest feature is a feat of generative AI, leveraging stable diffusion to allow users to create marketing visuals with any scenes or accessories, in a matter of minutes, from a single product photo and a short text description. This is a significant step up from the hours (and $$$) spent in a photo studio, and real testament of the team’s ambition and innovative nature.
Depop, eBay, Poshmark, and countless of today’s most popular platforms put such a high importance on images. Online retail is powered by imagery, at each stage of the process — from awareness to intent to conversion, from social media posts by influencers to ads to the marketplace. It’s crucial for online sellers to have their photo game on point!
With PhotoRoom, the process of creating images, one at a time or in batch, is just a few taps away on your mobile. The app includes a vast library of backgrounds and adapts the export to the format of the platform you are targeting. The company has also recently launched an API to make the technology more widely available and a web platform to enable teams to work together collaboratively.
As often, a strong reason for our partnership is the founding team. What excited us was Matthieu and Eliot’s sharp product mindset and relentless focus on user needs. Their urge to solve friction in the image production process and their ambition to create a world-class creator tool transpired instantly. And it shows! In just a few years, with less than 20 people, they created the go-to editing app — downloaded 40 million times, with a whopping 4.7 star rating. They are an impressive and complementary duo. Matthieu leads all things product and Eliot is the brain behind the AI and ML algorithms. Both are pioneers in the field, Matthieu was head of product at Stupeflix, a powerful video editing app, acquired by GoPro and Eliot had been published on computer vision technology. Both founders are French but they built a global organisation from the get-go with huge popularity in Europe, America, and Asia.
Welcome to the Balderton family, Matthieu, Eliot, and the rest of the PhotoRoom team! We’re honoured to be part of your journey to become the number one photo editing platform in the world.
