Imagelooop: Web 2.0 company wins new investors

Investment to finance rapid growth in social networking sector eg. MySpace

Prominent investors contribute capital, contacts and expertise

Cologne, 15.12.2006 – imagelooop GmbH has laid the foundations for further expansion of its online slideshow venture ‘imagelooop’. The company’s new investors include Dr. Andreas Weigend, Principal at People & Data (San Francisco) and former Chief Scientist with Amazon.com (Seattle), the private-equity firm Otto Wolff GmbH, Bernd Schlobohm and Gerd Eickers (founders of German broadband provider QSC) and internet business angel Mehrdad Piroozram. This round of strategic investment provides imagelooop with the basis for a period of accelerated and scalable growth. The company’s technical platform, for example, will be further developed while new senior managers are also set to join the 15-strong team.

In total, over €1 million has now been invested in imagelooop. These latest investors are investing more than just capital. They will also perform a ‘business angel’ role, contributing unrivalled knowledge of the internet market, excellent business management experience and a wealth of contacts including some of the key players in the industry.

The platform for multimedia slideshows can already be used both offline and online. With only a few clicks of a mouse, slideshows can be built into profiles on online communities such as MySpace or into personal blogs and websites. Methods for building imagelooop slideshows into profiles on other worldwide community sites are also in the pipeline. Additionally, a variety of new effects and designs are being developed to further improve the presentation of photos.

At present, it is completely free to use imagelooop. A re-structuring of costs through the introduction of premium membership, exclusive third-party products and advertising will take place at a later point.

Strategy of US firm indicates positive forecast
‘Video portals such as YouTube and photo communities like Flickr are becoming more popular by the day. With our free, animated slideshows, imagelooop is effectively bridging the gap between these two booming markets by enabling users to display slideshows on their own profiles’, comments Stefan Riehl, imagelooop’s COO.

‘Imagelooop is a useful and highly innovative venture that meets the needs of today’s internet users. Social networking sites are already popular but have yet to truly take off in Europe’, explains investor Dr. Andreas Weigend, lecturer in Data-Mining and E-business at Stanford University.

‘The outlook for imagelooop is extremely positive, as the example of the US equivalent Slide.com demonstrates. The strategic integration of investors provides imagelooop with the basis for a period of accelerated and scalable growth’, comments seed investor Mehrdad Piroozram.

FRAMFAB FOUNDER JOINS INTERNET START-UP

• Stefan Riehl becomes COO and eyes exponential growth
• Focus on gap between booming video- and photo-sharing networks

Cologne, 08.12.06 - Stefan Riehl has been appointed COO of new internet firm imagelooop with immediate effect. Imagelooop is the sole European provider of photo slideshows for internet users. The company offers enormous potential, particularly in the teen and ‘tween’ demographics and in the rapidly expanding market for community websites such as MySpace. Riehl previously worked with international internet service provider Framfab, managing and developing their entry into the German market. This web pioneer joins imagelooop with over ten years of experience in the IT sector. His initial goals are a steady and speedy increase in user numbers as well as an expansion of the company’s international operations.

The timing of this initiative is particularly significant. Slide, a US equivalent of imagelooop, recently announced it had amassed USD 20 million in capital and is now ranked in the Top 20 ‘functional host’ sites, ie. sites that provide storage space for user content.

Plans for growth

‘Web 2.0 is more than just a trend. These websites are meeting the fundamental needs of our modern society. Photos are an essential component of such sites and by using imagelooop, users can design slideshows for their own images before embedding them in MySpace profiles, blogs or other websites. In terms of concept, strategy and technical prowess, imagelooop has no competitor in Europe – and now we want to expand’, comments Riehl.

‘Our platform is so technically sophisticated that we’re able to take on the mass-market’, says Wolfgang Krüger, founder and director of imagelooop. ‘Stefan Riehl’s excellent management experience and outstanding track-record will help bring us into the next phase of our development and realise our huge potential.’