Depositphotos, a New York-based stock photo marketplace with Eastern European origins, announces a $5m funding round led by the EBRD with the participation of existing investor TMT Investments. This capital injection will allow the company to grow into a leader in emerging markets, where demand for stock content is booming, while competing with market giants in Western countries.
NEW YORK, Dec. 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Depositphotos, a New York-based stock photo platform with Eastern European origins, announces a $5 million funding round led by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) via the EBRD Venture Capital Investment Programme. Previous investor TMT Investments has also participated in the round. Agreed last month, the transaction will be completed until the end of the year.
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With this capital injection, the company aims to become a leader in emerging markets, where demand for stock content is booming, while continuing to challenge the market leaders in Western countries. The funding will also be used to expand Depositphotos' R&D center in Ukraine.
With its 10 million monthly visitors and its highly successful pricing strategy, Depositphotos has already managed to acquire leading positions in emerging areas, including Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America, thanks to a carefully localized approach. Not only does Depositphotos offer high quality content at the most affordable prices, the company also provides robust and effective tools for customers' creative workflows. With more than 40 million stock photographs, vector images and video clips in its content library, Depositphotos continually meets the creative needs of its three million members.
On the content supply side, Depositphotos has one of the most attractive royalty offers in the industry. Combined with a fast-growing client base spread among many countries, this provides content producers with unlimited earning opportunities.
While the better part of its revenue derives evenly from North America, Western Europe and emerging markets, Depositphotos benefits from its low-cost R&D unit in Kiev, Ukraine, and local knowledge of the Eastern European markets. The company has either a sales and marketing office or a country representative in each targeted market.
According to the terms of the deal, the EBRD will acquire a minority stake in Depositphotos while founder Dmitry Sergeev will retain majority ownership of the company.
Depositphotos will use the funding to accelerate its international growth and to expand its R&D operations in Ukraine. The company's global commercial strategy includes both Western Europe and emerging markets with the aim of acquiring leadership positions in these areas over the next few years.
"When we started developing Depositphotos in a basement office in Kiev, we could hardly imagine that one day an investor such as the EBRD would support us," said company founder Dmitriy Sergeev. "Today Depositphotos is a successful international company with over 250 employees worldwide. With this additional funding we will be able to scale our development, sales and marketing operations to fuel our expansion and growth," he added.
"Already among the top 5 global stock photo marketplaces, Depositphotos will accelerate its successful development with this new investment. The company, which generated just a few dozen thousand dollars in revenues when we initially invested in them, now already makes tens of millions annually," said Artem Inyutin, Head of Investment at TMT Investments.
SOURCE Depositphotos
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