Chances are you always look at photos before you order food in your favorite food delivery app, or before you book a hotel room. French startup Meero wants to make the web and mobile apps look beautiful by helping businesses get good photos. And the company just raised a $230 million funding round.
Eurazeo, Prime Ventures and Avenir Growth are leading today’s funding round. Existing investors include Global Founders Capital, Aglaé Ventures, Alven, White Star Capital and Idinvest. The company says it represents the largest Series C round in France.
At its core, Meero is a comprehensive marketplace of photographers all around the world. This way, companies can find a freelancer and get photos back in less than 24 hours. Essentially, getting professional shots becomes an on-demand process.
The company currently focuses on a few key industries, including real estate, food, experiences, retail and e-commerce. Maybe your favorite Instagram-native brand relies on Meero for their product shots.
But Meero knows that plenty of photographers don’t need leads. That’s why the startup is also providing many services to make their lives easier.
And it starts with getting the basics right. Meero takes care of the paperwork. You don’t have to send a contract, you don’t have to collect money from your clients. Of course, Meero takes a cut on transactions.
The company has also been working on automatic photo-editing algorithms. If a photographer wants to accept more photo shoots, they need to spend less time editing photos. So Meero is working on AI-powered technology to automatically improve raw shots.
There are currently 80 people on the tech team, and the company plans to grow the tech team to 300 people to go further on this topic.
In the future, Meero plans to launch masterclasses and documentaries for their photographers. There will be more meetups so that photographers can talk together. And the company also plans to unveil a magazine and a foundation to support photography.
But the bigger news is that Meero plans to open the marketplace to individual customers. And yes, it means that your next wedding could be powered by Meero — that’s a lucrative industry.
Meero has managed to attract 31,000 clients in 100 countries. There are currently 58,000 photographers on the platform. Six hundred people work directly for Meero across five different offices.
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