A copy of the press release is below. A link to the Techcrunch story is here.

Imagekind.com, Changing the Way the World Buys and Sells Art, Closes $2.6 Million in Oversubscribed Round of Financing

Imagekindâ„¢ Adds Erik Blachford to the Advisory Board and Sven Achter to the Board of Directors

Seattle, Wash., Feb. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Imagekind.com, the world’s fastest growing online community for creating, selling and buying artwork, today announced it has closed $2.6 million in its series A round of financing. The company will use these funds to aggressively market the site and increase operations and staffing.

Holtzbrinck Ventures, the venture arm of one of Germany’s largest publishing companies and one of Europe’s leading Internet investors, led the round.

Other investors include:
· Crosslink Capital, investors in TiVo, Omniture and Pandora
· Erik Blachford, former CEO of Expedia
· Tom Hughes, the co-founder of Photodisc (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, largest framing manufacturer

Imagekind also announced today that Expedia’s former CEO, Erik Blachford has joined Imagekind’s Advisory Board, and Sven Achter of Holtzbrink Ventures joined Imagekind’s Board of Directors. According to Sven, “Imagekind’s fast growth, extreme member loyalty, and strong management team, made Imagekind a compelling investment opportunity for us. By developing a unique online marketplace that allows buyers and sellers to discover and monetize original art, Imagekind leveraged new print on demand technologies to develop a high-growth opportunity with international implications, and we were intrigued by the opportunity to work with such an innovative and fast-growing company.”

“We never actively solicited investors but there was an unexpected level of interest in Imagekind ,” stated Kelly Smith, CEO and one of Imagekind’s founders. “When we finally decided to raise external capital, we wanted to partner with funds and individuals that share our interest in international expansion and who bring a global perspective. Our roster of world class investors have had prior successes in related industries to including imaging & printing, photobooks, manufacturing and world-class consumer e-commerce properties. This financing allows us to continue focusing on building the most unique online e-commerce platform that we expect to become a major player in this emerging $20 billion art marketplace.”

Holtzbrinck has been noticeably active in the European investment scene as of late, having acquired the biggest German social networking platform for college students called StudiVZ for an amount estimated to be approximately €100 million. Holtzbrinck has an enviable track record with other investments placed on online networks e-commerce and entertainment sites. Imagekind is their first official US investment to date.

With newly acquired venture capital, Imagekind plans an aggressive strategy of marketing and operational improvements. Imagekind will also continue to acquire work from talented artists in order to supply a growing demand for original art as well as providing the highest level of member support for the loyal artists who have been with us since the beginning. Kevin Saliba, President of Imagekind states, “More than 6,000 artists have posted galleries of their work. Customers are buying art from artists all over the world, from New York to South Africa to Iceland.” Saliba adds, “We will continue to deliver the best service to our artists and photographers and the best selection of high quality original artwork to our customers.”
About Imagekind.com

Imagekind.com is the fastest growing online art e-commerce community on the internet. Imagekind.com brings almost unlimited options in the world of framed art, fine art prints and wall art. Imagekind’s goal is to develop a new online art experience that allows both consumers and professional artists a new outlet for sharing, creating and buying actual wall art from digital files. Imagekind is often described as a cross between a virtual art gallery, a photo-sharing service and a print-on-demand service.
CONTACT: Imagekind.com, 206.866.4610, or email: care@imagekind.com
http://www.imagekind.com

Flickr is having their 3rd birthday party and Imagekind gets to play along!

Here’s the blog post:

Saturday March 3, 6-9 pm in San Francisco.

They’ll be announcing the venue shortly via our upcoming.org event listing. We hope you can join us.

As part of this year’s celebration, we’re hosting a benefit auction with proceeds going to charity (more to come). 20 photos selected by Team Flickr will be printed, matted and framed by ImageKind who are graciously donating the services. If you’d like to submit your photograph for consideration, you can do so via oFlickr 333 group. They are accepting submissions until 5pm PST February 16th.

I wanted to test a great new online photo processing service called Picnik against one of my Flickr galleries. Not only can you use it to make really simple Flash slideshows…you can also use it to actually edit your images using their web-based service. Very cool!

I feel like I get asked this question a lot. Right this very second? Straight from the UK comes Amy Winehouse.