Smartphone photo book company Once Upon gets 10 million EUR investment from Verdane, Spintop
Verdane, the Northern European specialist growth investor, has announced its investment in Once Upon Publishing AB, the Skellefteå, Sweden-based smartphone photobook app company. Once Upon operates across Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. The company says it “will draw on Verdane’s digital consumer investment experience to support its international expansion and product development.” Once Upon reached a turnover of SEK75 million in 2020, with closer to 2 million app downloads since launching in 2017. Once Upon is headquartered in northern Sweden, and currently has 25 employees, a number the company expects to double in the next 12 months.
In addition to Verdane, which brings experience from investing in companies such as Boozt, Desenio, EasyPark and MatHem, Once Upon will continue to be supported by its existing investor Spintop Ventures, which invested SEK 16 million in July 2019.
“Many people today are overwhelmed with the number of photos on their phones and are looking for ways to turn them into curated memories and keepsakes,” says Lina Andersson, CEO and founder, Once Upon. “Our easy way to create stylish photo books on-the-go has found a strong following among busy parents who want to eternalize all those special moments but have little time. The Once Upon app guarantees that anyone can create a beautiful book with sleek Scandinavian design in as little as 20 minutes.”
Once Upon was founded after Andersson realized she didn’t have any printed photo memories of her daughter, Sally, and felt the user experience of existing photo printing services was unnecessarily complicated and time-consuming for a busy mother of three. Together with co-founders Johan Schiller and North Kingdom, the digital design agency, she set out to build the world’s number one brand for memories, the company said.
“We are very happy to welcome Once Upon to the Verdane family,” ” says Jakob Tolleryd, Partner at Verdane. “We have been following their journey over the last two years and are impressed by how they have built a fast-growing brand adored by their customers. Equally inspiring is their team, who are obsessed with creating a seamless user experience with a proud Scandinavian footprint. This is exactly the sort of journey that we at Verdane are excited to be a part of, and we look forward to supporting them as they expand to new markets.”
“Once Upon has built a strong culture of innovation and co-creation that really stands out,” says Sami Niemi, partner at Spintop Ventures, which is a Swedish early-stage Venture Capital company investing in Nordic software-enabled technology companies. “It’s inspiring to see how every team member is empowered to make decisions and the way innovation happens all around the company. It’s been a joy to watch this passionate team evolve, and we’re excited about the things to come.”