Curious Office Partners’ ImageKind, an online community site focusing on buying and selling artwork, has closed a first round of $2.56 million. The round was led by the venture arm of German publishing company Holtzbrinck Ventures. The money will be used to develop new services and to expand overseas, according to John Cook’s Venture Blog. ImageKind also plans to boost operations and staffing. Launched last July, ImageKind is for buyers and sellers of original artwork. Photographers and artists upload digital prints to the site, setting the price for the artwork beyond a base price from ImageKind for printing and paper costs. Initially, the company had not planned to raise any capital at all, according to a post on the company’s blog. As external interest grew, company executives began to examine their long-term view and opted for partners and financing to keep moving up.
Investors in the round included Crosslink Capital; Erik Blachford, former CEO of Expedia; Tom Hughes, the co-founder of Photodisc (now Getty Images); Samwer-Brothers, the founders of eBay Germany, MyPhotobook; Nick Hanuaer, founder and chairman of aQuantive, and Second Ave Partners; Bill Trimarko, president of Larsen-Juhl. Blachford has joined Imagekind’s advisory board along with Sven Achter of Holtzbrink.