Photo-focused start-up snaps up £250,000 to capture growth

An Edinburgh-based startup is planning to expand in Europe and the US after securing almost £250,000 in seed funding.

Pixey.io was set up by Sarah Stenhouse and enables broadcasters and publishers to obtain the digital rights to Instagram photos. Clients have included a major highstreet bank and a global advertising firm.

Equity Gap, Gabriel Investments and the Scottish Investment Bank have invested a total of £213,000 with a further £30,000 from Robin Knox and Paul Walton of Intelligentpos.

The firm, which said it is also increasing its headcount by five, will use the cash injection to grow the team over the next six months to introduce artificial intelligence technology and increase its international profile. Stenhouse came up with her business idea while trying to source an image in her former role at an advertising agency. The stock photography market is estimated to be worth £2.3 billion a year.

Pixey.io contacts photographers posting on Instagram to request use of their images and arranges copyright and payment. It was also a finalist in Deloitte’s Disrupt the Enterprise 2017 awards recognising the most talented and disruptive tech start-ups. Stenhouse said: “The business has been growing steadily but this funding is huge for us… We can now bring in AI technology to effectively source images as well as boosting our profile in the US and Europe.” 0 Sarah Stenhouse said the funding is ‘huge’ for the firm