Aviary, the New York City developer of advanced photo editing tools, went mobile a year ago, offering its first SDKs for iOS and Android users. And what a year it’s been. Aviary said users have now edited 1 billion photos and the company expects to double that figure by the end of the year.
After launching on mobile with 30 partners, Aviary now has 2,000 customers, including Flickr, TypePad, Box, MailChimp, SquareSpace and Imgur. And now it’s ramping up its international business by adding Mixi, the largest social network in Japan and my.mail.ru, one of Russia’s largest social networks. It’s also partnered with Microsoft, Nokia and Walgreens.
Across the entire Aviary network, which includes web-based photo editing tools, Aviary now attracts almost 20 million users, who use its photo editor each month. That’s up from 3.5 million back in April, when it replaced Picnik as Flick’s picture editor.
The company is now profitable and is generating enough money that it doesn’t need to seek more funding for several years. It most recently raised $ 6 million in June from Spark Capital and Jeff Bezos’ Bezos Expeditions and previously raised money from LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman.
The fast growth is a validation of Aviary’s approach to the market. While it’s put out its own mobile photo app, it’s been more content to power a lot of other photo applications. And that has opened up a lot of opportunities to make money from premium content, such as virtual stickers and effects packs.
