With $1 million in new funding and a just-launched enterprise platform for brands, Photofy is out to prove it’s not like other photo editing apps.
In the year since the Raleigh startup launched its free consumer-facing app and raised $750,000 in seed funds, its team of designers and developers have built a library of 35,000 digital stickers, frames and overlays and earned the right to license images and marks from Disney, DreamWorks, most major fraternities and sororities and many NCAA colleges. In-app purchases have made Photofy a top 40-grossing photo app in the App Store (and at one point made its Top 1000 overall). It is nearing a million active monthly users.
But today marks its real opportunity to differentiate from thousands of other photo startups and apps (nearly 1,500 are listed on AngelList) and show that brands will spend marketing dollars on tools that help them better engage with customers and fans.
“Our goal is to prove you can build a revenue model around photo sharing,” says Photofy co-founder and president Jon LaNasa. Today’s Photofy 3.0 launch includes improved features for consumers along with the brand platform, and the new app is available on iOS, Android and Kindle devices.
Betting on Photofy this round is its seed investor Capitol Broadcasting Corp. (ExitEvent’s parent company), along with Michael Olander Jr., who owns Raleigh-based MDO Holdings and O2 Fitness, and Jim Dondero, who runs the Dallas hedge fund Highland Capital.
“I saw a really strong enterprise play here,” says Olander, who expects to use the platform to market O2. “We’ve evidenced that with Oscar Mayer and the Durham Bulls. It has a great product that these companies can use for social media and to create community engagement.”
The new Photofy for Business gives brands the opportunity to create branded frames, overlays and stickers that can be used internally or made available to customers and fans to add to their photos. The tool is made to be social, so completed images can be shared through any social network, letting customers promote the brands they love. Early beta testers have included Oscar Mayer, CanvasOnDemand, the Durham Bulls and Albright Digital, a Durham creative agency that provides digital marketing tools to more than 100 car dealerships around the nation. At least three dealerships will be launching galleries of branded images using the app in coming weeks, and Albright has since created Stamp’d for Automotive to resell Photofy’s offerings to its dealers.
“Auto dealers are in a very competitive market and are always looking for creative marketing ideas to get in front of the customer,” says Albright General Manager Vickie Gibbs. “Photofy gives them the ability to include their brand on customer photos that they can share with customers via email or post on Facebook.”
Photofy’s first year
Photofy is the brainchild of LaNasa and Jesse Flores, who worked together at CafePress. LaNasa previously founded the Cary-based custom invitation creator InvitationBox.com and operated invitation and stationary wholesaler Noteworthy Collections and sold both to CafePress in 2011. Flores, a designer by trade, served as its creative director.
