Startup Pastbook lands a new investment round of €1.7M, further growing its intelligent photo book platform

Pastbook has announced a new investment round of approximately €1.7M euros to support its international expansion. The startup’s platform enables users to print their Instagram and Facebook memories into high quality printed photo books. With one click of a button, photos are instantly chosen and arranged in the best way possible.

Exponential growth

This new investment round brings the total amount raised by the company to over €2.1M euros. The investment was done in two waves: an initial convertible note followed up by a new investment from existing investors, including Vortex Capital Partners. According to investor Dinko Valerio – Founder and former CEO of Crucell, “As a sparring partner and investor, I am very pleased with the roll-out and success of Pastbook. The company is clearly poised for further growth, which is why I am happy to continue my support.” Illustrating its exponential growth, Pastbook has been increasing its revenue at a rate of 10x YoY  (year over year) for the last three years in a row.

International expansion

This new investment round will enable Pastbook to internationally expand its “Intelligent Instant Photo Book” platform to several European countries. These include the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom. Stefan Cutello, founder and CEO of Pastbook, stated the following: “With our Intelligent Instant Photo Book solution focused on Facebook and Instagram, we have proven that we’re un-tapping a new segment in the market: people who always wanted to have a photo book but never found the time to make one.” This statement seems to be quite accurate. 50% of Pastbook users have never created a photo book before using Pastbook. And while the startup is now focused on Instagram and Facebook, Pastbook could create photo books from any source.

The technology

Pastbook’s own developed algorhythm combines a huge range of data with smart technology to automatically select the user’s best photos. Without requiring any further user interaction, photo books are instantly arranged within 60 seconds from a chosen time period. Pastbook’s unique algorhythms and one-click photo book creation engine set the startup apart from their competitors. Adding to this, 95% of all the photo books that are being sold by the company are instant books. These are photo books that have not been edited by consumers while they did have the chance to do so. This fact illustrates how succesful Pastbook’s technology is at creating the best possible photo books out of the users’ best photos.

European competition

Pastbook will probably find some solid competition in Europe though, as one of the leading photo product companies, Albelli, has recently acquired digital photo book startups Resnap. This startup is quite similar to Pastbook, as it lets users quickly create personalized photo books. Also, Resnap makes this process automatic as well, as its AI choses the best photo sets of customers.

Availability

Pastbook has recently partnered up with RPI. This company is a provider of premium quality photo book printing with facilities in the United States, Europe as well as in Oceania. The partnership will enable the startup to expand its global footprint and reduce shipping times. PastBook is available on web and mobile and on the App Store right now. An Android version will also coming by the end of the year.