HomeFinland-StartupsFinnish startup Scoopshot secures $1.2 million in funding

Finnish startup Scoopshot secures $1.2 million in funding

Scoopshot, a Helsinki-based service for crowdsourcing on-demand photography, is taking on the multi billion-dollar photo industry. The photography-on-demand service has recently received $1.2 million funding from Yuri Arcurs, the world’s top selling stock photographer, who sells one photo every eight seconds. Scoopshot will use the funding to accelerate its international growth with a focus on the UK, US and German markets.

The young company, which was founded in 2010, offers an alternative to regular stock photo libraries and expensive agencies giving all photo buyers the ability to set assignments for its global network of 280,000+ mobile photographers. With Scoopshot you can crowdsource images, run photo competitions, do content marketing, gain consumer insights and much more.

The birth of on-demand photography could sound the death knell for the stock industry as we know it, says Scoopshot CEO, Niko Ruokosuo: “Buyers are tired of wading through page after page of stale and over-used photography, before having to compromise. For the first time, they can request exactly what they want and receive it within minutes and without spending a fortune. The birth of on-demand photography will be as much of a game changer for the photo industry as iTunes for the Music industry,”.

“It is our belief that the majority of stock photography will be on-demand within the next five years. To survive, photo sites must adapt and adopt new models for monetising photography. It really is a case of do or die,” added Mr Ruokosuo.

Scoopshot offers local, national and global photo assignments. Location-based local tasks can be created for free, with national and global tasks available for a small fee. Photo buyers can pay to send an instant notification to photographers in a specific location alerting them of the task, extend the duration of a task, or brand the task with a logo. All photos submitted are available to buy for just $5 each. Scoopshot also offers subscriptions for media users, providing a live feed of eyewitness photos from its crowd of mobile photographers in 177 countries.

Thomas Ohr
Thomas Ohr
Thomas Ohr is the "Editor in Chief" of EU-Startups.com and started the blog in October 2010. He is excited about Europe's future, passionate about new business ideas and lives in Barcelona (Spain).
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  1. With demand for citizen photography growing, Scoopshot has signed agreements with Hürriyet, Turkey’s highest circulation newspaper, 20Minutes, France’s most-read daily, and Der Tagesspiegel, a leading Germany daily. The agreements will give journalists instant access to a live stream of authenticated eyewitness photos and video, and the ability to set location-based tasks, when specific photos are needed.

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