Photo sharing and social commerce app PicMix raises $3m

Photo credit: Philippe Put.

(Update April/13/2016 10:10 am: We updated the title and the first paragraph of this story. In an earlier version, the funding amount was said to be US$1 million, and the involvement of the undisclosed strategic investor was not mentioned.)

PicMix, a photo sharing and social network app out of Indonesia, today announced a US$3 million series A investment. The first US$1 million comes from Shanghai’s Gobi Partners, with an additional US$2 million from to-be-disclosed strategic investor.

PicMix offers users a range of photo and video editing and social sharing features. There’s a community component through which users connect with each other, discover content and things to buy, or participate in contests. The startup’s revenue comes in part from selling frames, stickers, and other additions to enhance photos. In Indonesia, it has a featured called PicMix Mall, in which it runs campaigns with ecommerce brands to drive traffic to sites where physical goods are sold.

Founded in 2012, the app currently has a “total of close 27 million registered users,” at a monthly active users above 50 percent, the company claims.

It’s popular around the globe, with significant user bases in Indonesia, South Africa, and Nigeria.

BlackBerry beginnings

PicMix first gained popularity as a BlackBerry app. BlackBerry phones were still in huge demand in Indonesia in the past few years and are just now being replaced by Android smartphones.

Back in 2013, PicMix founder Calvin Kinzana told Tech in Asia that he launched on BlackBerry first because few people were developing for that platform then – whereas on iPhone and Android, he would be competing with hundreds of Instagram-esque photo apps.

The number of users on BlackBerry is still significant now, Calvin says. “Amazingly, the number of new registered users on BlackBerry is still there on every single day […] Of course the number of new registered users on Android has surpassed BlackBerry. Moving forward, we will be focusing in just two platforms: Android and iOS, while still maintaining our BlackBerry users.”

With the fresh supply of cash, PicMix plans to improve the ways it works with big and small ecommerce companies, rolling out the PicMix Mall social commerce channel in a number of Southeast Asian markets over the next year. It also wants to get smarter about data and develop a machine learning engine to better understand the needs and habits of its users.