Jul 19, 2013
Startups & Venture Capital
Pixtr develops clear picture for growth
Taryn Plumb, Special to the Journal
W. Marc Bernsau
Most people are highly critical of the way they look in photos. Aviv Gadot’s
wife certainly is — a fact that prompted the Israeli engineer to create
an app, Pixtr, that enhances photos taken on mobile devices.
“It does it subtly,” said Gadot, CEO and co-founder of the startup of the same name. “We don’t want to change who you are. We want to make you look the best you can, but still keeping your authentic look.”
Founded in January 2012 in Israel as Photo-Genie, the company is now headquartered in Boston after its acceptance into the 2013 MassChallenge startup program. Pixtr has also secured a prominent angel investor: Uri Levine, co-founder of navigational app firm Waze, which Google reached an agreement to acquire for $1.1 billion in June.
Gadot declined to disclose the size of Levine’s investment, but termed it an “impressive amount.” The startup, now with five full-time employees, also received $20,000 in prize money for placing first in the Intel Business Challenge Europe 2011 program.
How the Pixtr app works: Users run a photo through the app, which then enhances it with one click. For example, skin tone might be evened out, hollows beneath eyes lightened, the symmetry and proportions of cheek bones, noses, and jawlines subtly adjusted, eyebrows clipped, and camera distortions and overall coloring improved.
As Gadot explained, the app makes use of facial recognition software and numerous algorithms designed to understand age, gender, the location and quality of facial features, and the content of photos.
“Everything is fully automatic,” Gadot said.
He has more than 1,000 photos stored on his iPhone, and described his wife as beautiful, but someone who really hates pictures of herself. In creating the app, he says he “wanted her to feel good about the way she looks in photos.”
The app is free and currently only available in Apple iOS. The company is focusing its energy on perfecting it before releasing it on Android. Since its release at the end of April, it’s been downloaded close to 100,000 times, Gadot said. A forthcoming updated version will allow users to make changes to, and have more control over, the automatic adjustments.
The plan is to eventually generate revenue through advertising through the app, Gadot said, and the startup is also exploring the idea of in-app purchases, such as captions and backgrounds.
Ultimately, with more people relying on ever-more-improving cameras on their phones, the goal is to give amateur photographers editing abilities, and have the end result look like it was taken by a professional, Gadot said.
“It’s Photoshop for people who don’t know how to use Photoshop,” said Rebecca Carrol, a Brown University student who uses the app and is involved with the internship program Boston Onward Israel. “It’s just really simple — that’s why I like it.”
Original story link.
“It does it subtly,” said Gadot, CEO and co-founder of the startup of the same name. “We don’t want to change who you are. We want to make you look the best you can, but still keeping your authentic look.”
Founded in January 2012 in Israel as Photo-Genie, the company is now headquartered in Boston after its acceptance into the 2013 MassChallenge startup program. Pixtr has also secured a prominent angel investor: Uri Levine, co-founder of navigational app firm Waze, which Google reached an agreement to acquire for $1.1 billion in June.
Gadot declined to disclose the size of Levine’s investment, but termed it an “impressive amount.” The startup, now with five full-time employees, also received $20,000 in prize money for placing first in the Intel Business Challenge Europe 2011 program.
How the Pixtr app works: Users run a photo through the app, which then enhances it with one click. For example, skin tone might be evened out, hollows beneath eyes lightened, the symmetry and proportions of cheek bones, noses, and jawlines subtly adjusted, eyebrows clipped, and camera distortions and overall coloring improved.
As Gadot explained, the app makes use of facial recognition software and numerous algorithms designed to understand age, gender, the location and quality of facial features, and the content of photos.
“Everything is fully automatic,” Gadot said.
He has more than 1,000 photos stored on his iPhone, and described his wife as beautiful, but someone who really hates pictures of herself. In creating the app, he says he “wanted her to feel good about the way she looks in photos.”
The app is free and currently only available in Apple iOS. The company is focusing its energy on perfecting it before releasing it on Android. Since its release at the end of April, it’s been downloaded close to 100,000 times, Gadot said. A forthcoming updated version will allow users to make changes to, and have more control over, the automatic adjustments.
The plan is to eventually generate revenue through advertising through the app, Gadot said, and the startup is also exploring the idea of in-app purchases, such as captions and backgrounds.
Ultimately, with more people relying on ever-more-improving cameras on their phones, the goal is to give amateur photographers editing abilities, and have the end result look like it was taken by a professional, Gadot said.
“It’s Photoshop for people who don’t know how to use Photoshop,” said Rebecca Carrol, a Brown University student who uses the app and is involved with the internship program Boston Onward Israel. “It’s just really simple — that’s why I like it.”
Original story link.
No comments:
Post a Comment