AI photo studio PhotoRoom raises $19 million

NOV 07, 2022

The Series A was led by Balderton, with participation from Adjacent as well as angels from Facebook, Hugging Face and Disney+.

Founded in late 2019 by Matthieu Rouif and Eliot Andres, the award-winning PhotoRoom has become the go-to editing app for consumers, entrepreneurs and businesses worldwide looking to elevate their online imagery. Since launch, the PhotoRoom app has been downloaded 40 million+ times worldwide with a 4.7-star rating from 750k reviews.

In a world where visual content dominates, and in which high-quality images boost conversions and increase online engagement by as much as 352%, the need for high-quality, accessible editing tools is on the rise. PhotoRoom empowers resellers, small businesses, and marketplaces to create studio-quality images while saving precious time and money. 

With PhotoRoom we’re democratising access to tools that can transform how entrepreneurs and creators produce images. You’re now 10x faster, 10x cheaper, and 10x better than those big corporations. Working with Balderton Capital, we know we can bring these essential tools to more people, sellers, entrepreneurs, and marketplaces worldwide.

Matthieu Rouif, CEO & co-founder of PhotoRoom

By leveraging deep learning to translate pixels into objects, PhotoRoom’s mobile and web apps allow users to edit images in seconds. Users can remove, replace or blur backgrounds, and the software can also be used to delete unwanted features with a Magic Retouch tool.

PhotoRoom's latest feature, in beta, uses stable diffusion to enable users to create marketing product photos from a single product photo and a short text description.

Millions of merchants will be able to generate product visuals with any scene and accessories in a few minutes, an alternative to costly studio shooting which usually takes weeks and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Right now, I believe we are seeing yet another revolution in photography, like the digital takeover in 2000 that killed Kodak and Polaroid. Why? We can now pair the smartphone high-end camera in our pocket with PhotoRoom magic editing tools. This is a game changer for e-commerce photography, allowing businesses to have more control over the cost and creation of the images that create their brand.

PhotoRoom user Jeff Strauss, director of image operations at Wolt, who previously led a team of 700 photo editors at Amazon

Product photography is hard yet critical to business success. Bad photography can result in unsold inventory, listing rejections, poor advertising or even brand damage. But getting it right is no easy feat, and requires significant investment of both time and resources.

PhotoRoom’s own data shows that small businesses increase conversion rates by as much as 31% when using PhotoRoom’s tools to produce and share high-quality images. In addition, PhotoRoom product and machine learning innovation have cut editing time by 10x for entrepreneurs, freeing them up to concentrate on more business critical tasks such as customer service, social promotion, shipping and stock management. 

By focusing intently on user needs, Matthieu and Eliot have created a product that stands out from the rest. The importance of online photography is immense and PhotoRoom has both the traction and the ambition to become a market leader.

Bernard Liautaud, Managing Partner at Balderton

The funding will be used to develop PhotoRoom’s existing software further, improve generative AI features and keep hiring the best talent in Europe. PhotoRoom’s mission is to become the number-one photo editing platform in the world by democratising access to studio-quality photography and collaboration tools.

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