Backbone, the on-demand service for professional visuals, has closed a CHF 1.7m seed round led by Wingman Ventures for its international expansion and to further develop its technology. Backbone is the first startup supported by the Swiss Seed Fund in Romandie.
It was while building an Art gallery project that Backbone’s co-founders, Antoine Tomasini, Federico Leis and Dorian de Vinck, realized the difficulty to book a photographer in a business context. “It is a market dominated by independent photographers with different working methods, different styles and quality, and different prices. The guarantees are limited and you don’t want to make the mistake of booking the wrong photographer for your event.” says Dorian de Vinck, co-founder and CEO. Backbone solves the problem by vetting professional photographers on its platform and offering best in class services. It takes one minute to book a photoshoot on their online platform and the visuals are delivered within 48 hours.
Backbone helps photographers optimize their time
Backbone has developed new technologies to help photographers optimize their time. When working on their own, for one hour of actual photoshoot, photographers spend between 5 and 7 hours with travel time, editing work and other administrative tasks. Backbone’s algorithm matches photographers with the ideal photoshoot reducing the time spent on transport and admin tasks by 80%. “We provide tools to remove all the roadblocks in the way of their career and take care of prospecting, booking, content hosting, post-production, invoicing, payments etc.” says the CEO.
Among Backbone’s clients are leading real estate companies, international event planners and global marketplaces. Dorian de Vinck confirms: “Visuals are increasingly important in today’s world where customers buy online and where mobile devices are the main source of information. It is crucial for brands to rely on high quality visuals to reach their audience. With our solution we allow companies to create premium visuals much more easily and reliably.”
Expanding to Europe
The objective of this funding round is to speed up the growth in Europe and bring new technology solutions to Backbone’s client and photographer community. In that context, Backbone is hiring up to twenty new employees (in Operations, Sales, Product Development) across their two offices in Geneva and Berlin.
Alex Stöckl from Wingman Ventures adds: “Dorian and his team have proven that their solution leads to high customer satisfaction on both sides of the marketplace as both clients and photographers benefit significantly. At Wingman Ventures we very much believe that Backbone will be able to become a globally leading platform for anyone seeking premium visuals in real estate, ecommerce and corporate events. “ Backbone is the first startup in the French-speaking Switzerland supported by the Swiss Seed Fund.
(Press release / ES)
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