Printify, a start-up from Riga, Latvia, raised $ 1 million in start-up funding led by Google AdSense pioneer Gokul Rajaram as he seeks to expand his services to the United States and to form his team in Latvia.
Today, approximately 50,000 e-commerce stores use Printify's services for on-demand printing, according to the company.
In collaboration with Lumi, who can handle the packaging for mainstream start-ups, Printify is making the idea of becoming a brand as transparent as possible by removing much of the work of the company. a supplier.
The company keeps billing information from its customers in its files and links with the back-end ordering system of almost all ecommerce platforms.
When a command arrives, Printify receives an API notification to start working on a product. The company then sends print-ready files to an on-demand manufacturer who can print a design and ship a product within 24 hours.
The founder of Printify, James Berdigans, had the idea of the company after creating an accessory manufacturing company for Apple products.
"We wanted to print custom phone cases and we thought we would find a manufacturer on demand and that would be easy," says Berdigans. It is then that Printify is born.
The company first integrated with Shopify and began to see some traction in November 2015, but as the company did not have its own manufacturing, quality became a concern.
In 2016, Berdigans adopted the market model because he saw demand emanating from a growing number of small business owners like himself who needed to access a business. selection of quality print houses.
The new direct print on clothing and digital printing on t-shirts will grow very fast over the next few years, according to Berdigans.
Graduate of the 500 Startups accelerator program, the company is already profitable and hopes to capitalize on its success with this new funding to develop its team of engineers.
"In just two years, Printify has become profitable and growing rapidly and with this investment
we plan to double our Riga team in 2018. This will create at least 30 new jobs,
most of which will be dedicated to programming, design and customer support, "said co-founder Printify.
Artis Kehris in a statement.