PastBook Secures $250K as Second Round of Seed-Funding

For immediate release

04 SEPTEMBER 2012, AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS. SEPTEMBER 4TH
Summary
PastBook secures $250K of funding from a group of investors. The investment comes as the second portion of seed funding for the company that aims at becoming the museum of online memories for everyone on the Internet. PastBook's goal is to let its users rediscover important moments of their lives spread on various social networks and keep them in one place either online, or offline, as a PDF file, or a printed book: all with the same experience the users will be able to easily curate.

The investors are Noro Venture Capital, Vidoze BV and a group of undisclosed angel investors.

The investment comes as the second portion of seed funding for the company in the form of convertible notes. PastBook received the first seed investment as part of RockStart.Accelerator and after demo day PastBook secured a decisively bigger amount of funding to make PastBook's mission happening.

Although social networks are becoming more and more part of our daily lives, people's emotions and needs have not changed. What has changed is the way they create and share their memories. That's why PastBook collects their pictures that are scattered everywhere on-line. After have heard the PastBook's pitch, Steve Blank said that "PastBook is even more than solving just problem, it's solving a human being need: rediscovering own memories."

While the eventual goal of the PastBook team is to integrate all social networks,  the company has launched its beta version with Instagram. The service allows users to gather their Instagram photos in an online book by  connecting Instagram app to instagram.pastbook.com (http://instagram.pastbook.com/),  download it as a PDF file or get a professionally printed book.  PastBook allows to include comments and likes on  photos on Instagram in bid to make users' memories more vivid. After signing in on the platform with their Instagram accounts, users instantly  see a list of their friends and are able to create and gift PastBooks to  their friends. They can either create a PastBook with automatically generated layout, or customize it page-by-page.

Facebook integration is the next objective for PastBook on its way to becoming a hub for users' online social memories. For early access sign-up at facebook.pastbook.com (http://facebook.pastbook.com).

Founded in Milan, PastBook moved to Amsterdam in March 2012 after being selected by the Dutch  Accelerator, RockStart as one of the 10 startups out of hundreds of  applicants from around the world.

Stefano Cutello and Giuseppe Prioriello went all-in with PastBook, leaving two careers behind: one at eBay and the other in one of the leading printing companies in Italy.  During their first 5 months in Amsterdam, PastBook co-founders lived in a 20sqm containers, while having their property in Italy on sale.

"I went all-in with PastBook, I sold my car, my motorbike and both me and my partner Giuseppe are selling our houses in Italy because we want to go wherever we need to take PastBook. At DemoDay I said to investors: 'You have the option: you can either buy our houses or invest directly in PastBook' that worked. My house is still for sale." - Stefano Cutello, Founder & CEO at PastBook

The founders will be in Silicon Valley in September to meet new investors and expand their network there.
 
Quotes
"I went all-in with PastBook, I sold my car, my motorbike and both me and my partner Giuseppe are selling our houses in Italy because we want to go wherever we need to take PastBook. At DemoDay I said to investors: 'You have the option: you can either buy our houses or invest directly in PastBook' that worked. My house is still for sale." Stefano Cutello (@weblance) - Founder & CEO at PastBook
"Vidoze's core values when looking for an investment match with PastBook: a great team working on a great idea. Furthermore PastBook convinced us by attracting experienced entrepreneurs as investors." Ian Zein (@zeinian) - Founder of Vidoze, Investor in PastBook
"Every once in a while you stumble upon a great idea - well thought through and executed in an exellent way. Great companies consist of straightforward ideas and a great team to bring things to life. That's PastBook. I'm proud from the start to have been able to attract this team to the 2012 Rockstart Accelerator. Seeing them take off proves I can trust my intuition. Boom!" Oscar Kneppers (@oscarkneppers) - Founder at RockStart, Investor in PastBook
"The Pastbook team is on a mission to solve a big problem, the way these guys run their business drastically increases their chances to become player that is here to stay. Excited to see what's coming up!" Michiel Verberg (@verberg) - Founder & CEO at Whatser, Advisor at PastBook
"In our increasingly digital world of everything being saved in a virtual cloud, PastBook is the most beautiful way to turn your only digital memories into a real world experience, to share with your friends and family, and to perpetuate them in a physical photo book." Frederik Hermann (@netzkobold) - VP Global Marketing at Swipp
"PastBook is even more than solving just problem, it's solving a human being need: rediscovering own memories." Steve Blank (@sgblank) - Serial Entrepreneur (8 startups founded, 3 exits including one IPO)
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Original URL
https://news.pastbook.com/33241-pastbook-secures-250k-as-second-round-of-seed-funding
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About PastBook

About the company: https://www.pastbook.com


Founded in 2012 in Amsterdam by Stefano Cutello, as part of RockStart Accelerator, PastBook has been named one of the ‘Hottest startups in Europe” by Wired, won the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 in the "Media & Entertainment“ category and secured a top 20 spot in the Financial Times Europe's Fastest Growing Companies list.

PastBook is on a mission to make reliving memories frictionless. Allowing consumers to create beautiful photo products, in one-tap from pictures that are nowadays scattered between social networks and devices. Its Intelligent Instant Photo Book platform automatically and intelligently selects the best photos from the designated source, instantly arranging them into beautiful photo products, ranging from photo books, posters, photo tiles and calendars - printed and shipped worldwide across a global printing network.


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