Startup photo studio Soona Co. has closed on a $3.5 million seed round, the company announced Friday.
The round was led by Matchstick Ventures, which is based out of St. Paul and Boulder, Colo., and Starting Line, which is based out of Chicago, Ill.
Soona's studios in Minneapolis and Denver have a 24-hour turnaround and only charge customers for the photos that they want to buy. Customers — which often include influencers and small brands promoting their products on social media — can also shoot video, and can download their products online.
The company, which now has 17 employees, has seen dramatic growth in recent months. It took over 200,000 photos in 2019 and more than half of those were in the fourth quarter of the year. January was its strongest month in both of its studios, according to a press release.
"Soona's customers love the product and repeat at exceptionally high rates," Natty Zola, a partner at Matchstick Ventures, said in a statement. "Matchstick is thrilled to continue to be a part of Soona's growth."
The company has two studios in Minneapolis and Denver; it will open a third in Austin, Texas this spring and a fourth in New York City later this fall.
"I'm just so proud of what we're doing at Soona," co-founder and CEO Elizabeth Giorgi said. "[We're] really trying to find locations that allow us to continue to deliver a great experience like we've been able to deliver in the Twin Cities."
Soona has also gained attention for the "Candor Clause," which requires investors in the company to disclose any credible accusations of discrimination or sexual harassment. The clause grew out of an unsolicited, sexually graphic selfie that Giorgi received from a potential investor.
That story has reached national outlets like NPR, but the attention is a double-edged blade, Giorgi said.
"I consider myself an entrepreneur first, and so much of what I'm doing day in, day out is building a business that I think can have a meaningful impact," she said. The clause has been successful; all the investors in this most recent round signed it, and it's been used in over 50 other venture deals. But Giorgi worries that it can dominate the company's narrative.
"It's been difficult because I think a lot of my story is going to be, for a very long time, that I had this really awful thing happen to me," Giorgi said. "I think we've attracted some of the best people that this community has to offer, and I don't want their story to be shrouded in the dialogue of one investor who was a bad actor."
