22 Jul 2015 500px Raises $13Million In Series B Funding

Yesterday 500px announced new series B funding round of $13M, lead by Visual China Group and with participation of previous series A investors.

The capital raised will be used to reinforce 500px’s community platform and marketplace, and is part of a strategic partnership with the lead investor to expand the business in the Asian market.

Business Development

500px appears positive about its growth in the photo sharing and licensing space.  They say that given the huge number of images shared via online platforms daily and worldwide – around one trillion according to them – they see plenty of opportunities for their platform and business to expand.

With over 6 million users and 55 million images on their site (not all of which are in the marketplace), 500px will continue growing their product, marketing and operational teams and working on product development, adding features to boost the growth of its online global community and attract more marketing and design companies to their marketplace.

Strategic Move on the Asian Market

But ultimately, they will be using Visual China Group’s established regional agency (they are described as “the Getty Images of China”) as a distribution channel to reach the Asian market in a larger volume than they have until now, as well as growing the community base in the region.

In addition to the investment and distribution partnership, both companies created a Joint Venture to further develop the photo sharing and licensing business in Greater China and Asia Pacific area.  They intend to take over that market by merging Visual China’s local knowledge and 500px’s growth model.