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Snapwire Introduces Open Marketplace for Mobile Photographers and Expands Into Asia
Photo Startup With 150,000K+ Images Closes $1.4M Seed Round, Partners With gram30
SANTA BARBARA, CA--(Marketwired - July 09, 2014) - Snapwire, the platform that connects visionary mobile photographers with brands and businesses worldwide introduces Snapwire 2.0 -- an update that will allow any mobile photographer to earn money with their best mobile/DSLR photos and enable businesses to get authentic, royalty free custom imagery. The startup is also announcing the closing of their $1.4M seed round and a new partnership with international startup studio, gram30.
"Today we're unveiling the next generation of Snapwire 2.0, the biggest release to date," said CEO Chad Newell. "Since coming out of private beta in March 2014, we've seen 100% growth month over month and have users in 42 countries who have collectively uploaded more than 150,000K high resolution images. To date, we've worked with over 500 brands including Marriott, Verizon, JustLuxe, Denny's and some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world."
How Snapwire works: Photo buyers post a request for authentic photography, set their own price and photographers compete for the posted amount, earn points, level up and receive up to 70% when their photo sales. Photo buyers can also purchase the best submitted photos from a growing royalty free stock photo library and optionally add exclusivity to purchased photos on requests. Every photo on the platform comes with a royalty free license.
What's New:
Open Marketplace Portfolios. Snapwire 2.0 now gives photographers the ability to house their most beautiful photography in an open marketplace, making it a home for all their creative shots. Photographers can easily share their own unique URL with friends, fans and clients and simultaneously monetize any submitted photo -- a feature that few photo sharing platforms enable. What's more, any photo submitted to paid buyer requests are now available for purchase on photographers portfolios.
Photos from Portfolios Now Purchasable. Photographers can now sell photos directly from their personal portfolio page. Photographers who haven't been approved yet or have not had photos added to our 'Premium Collection', can start earning money right away. At the same time, buyers can purchase any image that they like right from their favorite photographers' portfolios apart from creating a request or searching the Collection.
Snapwire Challenges Open to All. Snapwire Challenges now allow everyone to participate. Photographers can submit photos to Challenges while waiting to be approved to submit to paid photo buyer request, and buyers can purchase any content submitted to Challenges. Our photo Challenges push photographers to be active and creative as well as keep our entire community filled with inspiration. Challenges also provide the company with endless amount of authentic photography for its growing searchable library. Here buyers can license photos that Snapwire curates. Now that we have made Challenges available to everyone, licensing inspiration just got easier.
Funding and Partnership with gram30
Leading the round is Sadato Tanaka, founder of social fashion shopping site BUYMA, a two-sided marketplace that connects buyers with independent personal shoppers. Tanaka grew the business to $150 million in annual transactions and successfully took the company public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2012. Other notable angels include Allen Morgan, Alan Meckler, Tom Glocer, Safa Rashtchy, Scott Jarus, Chaotic Investments, Roger Fishman, Dave Morgan, Spencer Huang, and Mark Kingdon.
Simultaneously, the company is partnering with gram30, a Japanese based startup studio focusing on incubating and developing new products and services. gram30 will be Snapwire's first Master Delegate to distribute our products and services internationally.
"By localizing Snapwire in Japan, it brings a great opportunity to internationalize Snapwire in Asia and beyond. With competition typically focusing on Europe and Northern Europe as a 1st approach for internationalization and expansion, Sadato's localized experience brings the required cultural knowledge to expand in Japan. We are headed west to Asia, the 2nd largest photo producing and consuming markets".
Contest:
Starting today, Snapwire is running a 2-week-long contest for photographers who have a chance to win over $1,500 in photography gear. Prizes include a Sony® DSC-QX10/B Smartphone Attachable 4.45-44.5mm Lens-Style Camera, Langly Alpha Pro Camera Bag, five VSCO Film® Packs for Adobe Lightroom 4 & 5, LifeProof® iPhone 5/5s Nüüd Case, and B&H Photo Video $400 gift card. In addition, photo buyers who wish to try Snapwire can receive an introductory 30% discount using promotion code PRSAVE30. Discount valid through July 31st, 2014 and does not affect photographer earnings.
About Snapwire
Snapwire is a platform that connects visionary mobile photographers with brands, publishers, small businesses, and creatives around the world. Photo buyers post a request for authentic photography and photographers compete, earn points and receive up to 70% on their photo sales. The company is located in Santa Barbara, CA.
