Photoroom, An App That Generates AI Images In One Second, Is Now Worth $500 Million

Forbes

In 2018, Matthieu Rouif, a product manager at GoPro, hit a wall. He needed to create visuals for the camera manufacturer’s latest video editing app and his designer was on leave. He spent the afternoon, frustrated, clicking away on Photoshop. At the same time across the hall, the company’s AI team was automating parts of photo editing as part of internal research.  An idea clicked: “I was like, we should give that to everyone who's editing photos on their smartphone,” Rouif told Forbes.  The experience inspired Rouif to leave GoPro and start Photoroom, which offers AI-based photo editing software. The startup’s 30 million active users range from jewelry makers in Kenya to fashion resellers on Poshmark to restaurant owners on DoorDash and Wolt. Rouif told Forbes that since its founding in 2019, its users have altered more than 5 billion images with Photoroom, using the app to perk up their product photos by adding AI-generated backgrounds, improve their photo’s resolution and generate product photos from scratch with text-to-image AI.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/rashishrivastava/2024/02/27/photoroom-an-app-that-generates-ai-images-in-one-second-is-now-worth-500-million/?sh=78467e91152b  Forbes Daily Briefing shares the best of Forbes reporting on wealth, business, entrepreneurship, leadership and more. Tune in every day, seven days a week, to hear a new story. Subscribe here: https://art19.com/shows/forbes-daily-briefing  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00 Here's your Forbes daily briefing for Friday, March 1st.

00:05 Today on Forbes, PhotoRoom, an app that generates AI images in one second, is now worth $500

00:12 million.

00:13 In 2018, Mathieu Wief, a product manager at GoPro, hit a wall.

00:20 He needed to create visuals for the camera manufacturer's latest video editing app,

00:25 and his designer was on leave.

00:27 He spent the afternoon, frustrated, clicking away on Photoshop.

00:31 At the same time across the hall, the company's AI team was automating parts of photo editing

00:37 as part of internal research.

00:39 For Wief, an idea clicked.

00:41 He told Forbes, "I was like, 'We should give that to everyone who's editing photos on their

00:46 smartphone.'"

00:47 The experience inspired Wief to leave GoPro and start PhotoRoom, which offers AI-based

00:54 photo editing software.

00:56 The startup's 30 million active users range from jewelry makers in Kenya to fashion resellers

01:01 on Poshmark to restaurant owners on DoorDash.

01:05 Wief told Forbes that since its founding in 2019, its users have altered more than 5 billion

01:11 images with PhotoRoom, using the app to perk up their product photos by adding AI-generated

01:17 backgrounds, improve their photos' resolution, and generate product photos from scratch with

01:22 text-to-image AI.

01:24 Wief, who sold his last startup to GoPro in 2016, said, "What we realized is this is not

01:30 a product manager at GoPro problem.

01:33 It's like a half a billion people problem, like people who are selling every day or every

01:37 week and need good photography to sell."

01:41 PhotoRoom announced this week that it has raised $43 million in Series B funding at

01:46 a valuation of $500 million.

01:50 London-based early-stage venture firm Balderton Capital and Aglaé Ventures, an investment

01:55 firm backed by LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault and his family, led the round, with participation

02:01 from Y Combinator.

02:03 The new round brings the PhotoRoom's total funding to $64 million.

02:08 With more than 150 million app downloads and a subscription-based business model, the Paris-based

02:14 startup has crossed $50 million in annual recurring revenue, according to Wief.

02:20 PhotoRoom has also garnered the attention of brands like Netflix, Lionsgate, and Warner

02:24 Brothers, who have used the startup's API to promote films and shows including Barbie

02:29 and Black Mirror.

02:31 In October 2023, PhotoRoom partnered with the Universal Music Group-owned record label

02:36 Republic Records to create a custom selfie generator of Taylor Swift's album 1989 that

02:41 millions of fans used to create an album cover with their own faces.

02:47 PhotoRoom first gained traction in 2020, the same year it was accepted into Y Combinator.

02:52 During the pandemic, entrepreneurs rushed to produce online catalogs of their products.

02:57 Without access to photographers and professional photo studios, they turned to photo editing

03:02 tools like PhotoRoom.

03:04 Before generative AI tools became mainstream, the startup's most popular tools were a background

03:09 remover tool, a tool called Magic Retouch which removed unwanted objects from a photo,

03:14 as well as a feature that could blur backgrounds in two seconds.

03:18 When more advanced AI tools became available in 2023, the startup expanded its offerings

03:24 to include fully AI-generated backgrounds, where users could create background visuals

03:28 from scratch through text prompts, now PhotoRoom's most commonly used feature.

03:34 To that end, the startup also launched its own foundational model, PhotoRoom Instant

03:39 Diffusion, whose speed has increased by 40% and is faster at generating images and backgrounds

03:45 than other text-to-image AI models, this according to the company.

03:49 Mid Journey takes 30 seconds and DALI 15 seconds, whereas PhotoRoom needs one second to generate

03:55 an image from scratch, we've said.

03:57 The model is trained on a curated database of millions of images, some sourced from image

04:01 providers and others bought directly from artists.

04:05 PhotoRoom co-founder and CTO, Elliot Andres, says that it is able to create images faster

04:10 through a "custom architecture" that packs more compute in a certain period of time and

04:16 is optimized for the latest NVIDIA GPUs.

04:19 Andres said, "The main key differentiator in this model is speed.

04:24 Our users want to save time.

04:25 They have a busy life, they have businesses, and we allow them to generate backgrounds

04:29 and images extremely quickly."

04:33 For full coverage, check out Rashi Srivastava's piece on Forbes.com.

04:39 This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes, thanks for tuning in.

04:42 [music]

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