Heavily funded Smilebox brings its photo service to the UK

Smilebox, the U.S. photo and video sharing service that lets users create greeting ‘cards’, slideshows, scrapbooks, collages and the like, has officially launched in the U.K.

This comes after the heavily funded company’s most recent “follow-on” round where it raised $2m specifically for international expansion. Its previous series B round in December 2007 led by Bessemer Ventures and Frazier Technology Ventures saw Smilebox raise $7m, having previously received $5m from Frazier and a host of prominent angels. In case you’re not paying attention, that totals no less than $14m.

The localised version includes British Pound currency support, a custom design catalog “tailored to British consumers” and new Smilebox designs from leading UK artists. To-date, Smilebox has released over 30 designs working together with Hallmark UK artists and the Caroline Gardner designer studio. The company operates a freemium model, charging for additional premium designs, the removal of ads etc.

Perhaps more interesting is who the service is resonating with in the U.K. In an “exit survey”, presumably taken when users closed the Smilebox Mac/Windows app, the company found that 85% were women and 68% were parents, which given the family photo sharing nature of the service, makes sense. Furthermore, 74% of Smilebox UK users who took the survey are members of Facebook (no surprise there) and 16% own an iPhone.