23 April 2006
PhotoBox, the United Kingdom's number one destination for online photo sharing, storing and printing, has announced its merger with Photoways, the European pioneer and leader of the photographic online printing market. The merger of the French and British market leaders in this space creates Photoways Group - Europe's biggest online photo service with sales of over 0 million in 2006.
The new group will continue to operate state-of-the-art laboratories in Paris and London with a combined capacity of over 1 million prints per day. Photoways Group, incorporating Photoways, PhotoBox and Pixdiscount is backed by world-leading venture capital companies, Index Ventures and Highland Capital Partners. As part of the merger, Michel de Guilhermier has been appointed as CEO, whilst Pierre Chappaz, the founder of Kelkoo and ex-President of Yahoo Europe has been appointed as Chairman.
Michel de Guilhermier comments: "The formation of this new group will delight our customers and allow us to provide them with the best quality services at great value. The merger with PhotoBox reinforces our position as Europe's largest online photolab. Our millions of members can look forward to exciting new product innovation and world-class customer service."
Existing PhotoBox customers will continue to develop their photos and use PhotoBox services from the existing sites. Established in 2000, PhotoBox was the first online digital photographic company in the UK and Ireland and is the market leader in the UK according to independent researcher Understanding and Solutions.
Photoways Group UK will operate from the London headquarters of PhotoBox. Company founders, Mark Chapman and Graham Hobson will become UK Managing Director and Group Chief Technical Officer respectively. Mark Chapman will also join the group Board of Directors.
Pierre Chappaz, Chairman of the Board of Photoways Group. "Photoways Group is now number 1 in the United Kingdom and in France. I will put my experience and my energy at the service of the company and focus on the European development of the group. We have all means necessary to carry on a path towards fast growth, thanks to our advanced technological output and the support of our leading investors Index Ventures and Highland Capital Partners."
About Photoways Group
Created in 2000, the Photoways group is a pioneer and leader in the European online photograph printing market. Photoways offers customers a complete online service including printing, storage and sharing of multiple photos, as well as its access to world-leading, innovative photolab technology. The group manages the Pixdiscount brand - a site dedicated exclusively to multiple photo printing at unbeatable prices.
Since its inception, the company has experienced consistently impressive growth. The group operates in 15 countries. The group recently settled a 4 million round with Highland Capital Partners and Index Ventures on July 20, 2005. The financing obtained is being used to reinforce and strengthen Photoways international presence as well as to develop new products and online services for photo sharing.
About PhotoBox
PhotoBox.co.uk is the UK's number one destination for online photo sharing, storing and printing. Launched in 2000, PhotoBox, partnered with FujiFilm UK, utilises award-winning, state-of-the-art facilities, offering an easy to use service to both amateur and professional photographers wanting to share or print their digital images. It is the UK's first online digital photographic company and the market leader in its field according to independent research by Understanding and Solutions 2005.
PhotoBox customers can use the simple online service to order photographic prints in wide range of sizes up to 30"x20" posters. Prints are good value for money with prices starting at 5p, for a standard 4" x 6" print. A huge selection of gifts including greeting cards, mugs, calendars and PhotoBooks featuring the customers own digital images are also available. Standard sized prints ordered before 4pm Monday-Friday are sent same day by first class post. PhotoBox provide white label solutions to a growing range of leading consumer brands including Carphone Warehouse, AOL, Bulldog, Sony, Woolworths, Reuters, Wanadoo, ThisisTravel.co.uk, NTL, LX direct, Empire Direct, Eircom and Blueyonder.
About Pierre Chappaz
An emblematic figure of the French and European Internet sphere, Pierre Chappaz created Kelkoo, the number one site for online price comparisons in Europe. He is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence with Index Ventures, and CEO of Wikio, the first actualities search engine directed by net surfers. He becomes Photoways Chairman of the Board at the time of merge with PhotoBox.
About Highland Capital Partners
Highland Capital Partners was founded with the mission of helping great people build great companies. Since its inception in 1988, the firm has taken a sector-focused approach to investing in exceptional information technology, communications and healthcare companies. With over $2.6 billion of committed capital, Highland Capital Partners has invested in and worked to create such firms as Altiga Networks, Ask Jeeves, Avid Technology, Be Free, CheckFree, Conor Medsystems, Continental Cable, EXACT Sciences, Lycos, MapQuest, New Oak Communications, Ocular Networks, Odyssey Healthcare, Sybase, Telica, VistaPrint and WebLine Communications. For more information, visit the web site of Highland Capital Partners at www.hcp.com <http://www.hcp.com/>.
About Index Ventures
Index Ventures is a leading pan-European venture capital firm active in investing since 1996. The firm is dedicated to helping top entrepreneurial teams both in the Information Technology and Life Sciences sectors build their companies into market defining global leaders. The firm has offices in Geneva, London and Jersey and focuses its investment activity primarily on Europe and Israel. Index investments include Skype, recently acquired by EBay, Betfair the world's largest betting exchange and MySQL, the world's most popular open source database, among others. For more information, visit www.indexventures.com