Dubai-based visual content SaaS platform, Flashy, the first AI-powered content solution tailor-made for brands across the Middle East, reported on Wednesday accelerated growth and revenue after just 10 months of operations.
The growth is driven by demand from fast-moving sectors, including real estate and food aggregator delivery services across the UAE. The start-up is consolidating demand across the region and Saudi Arabia specifically, and set to become the UAE’s largest photography agency by the end of 2022 for shoot volume and MENAs only cross border tech-enabled photography agency, on track to exceed over $3 million in revenues within the same period.
The AI-based photography platform www.getflashy.com works to provide imagery at scale for the media, real estate, advertising, retail, hospitality, automotive and eCommerce industries. With clients including Hilton Group, Hugo Boss, Accor, IHG, Tabby, Guest Ready, and Kitopi. Flashy has also helped brands, including Papa Johns and Hardee’s to showcase their products for the UAE and Egyptian markets.
With over 70 percent of recent growth coming from the Real Estate market, Flashy is looking toward the KSA market which is expected to register a CAGR of more than 9.8 percent during 2022 – 2027. With the average Flashy shoot cost at $245 – representing a >$100 million opportunity in the new housing sector alone, without considering the growing short term rental market.
The hospitality industry also contributed to the boom in revenue and shoot volume growth, with bookings via the Flashy platform for May 2022 already exceeding those of the entirety of April, marking a 500 percent volume growth, after closing April with a 170 percent upturn on March figures.
Flashy works with hundreds of photographers across every GCC country and they will open their platform to more than 1000 as growth continues throughout 2022. Top paid photographers utilising the Flashy platform have seen earnings reach upwards of AED 50,000 for their part-time contributions over the past 10 months.
“Flashy is proving the essential need for brands and businesses to produce vital visual content, at scale, and with a fast turnaround and the best quality – month on month growth has been the norm rather than the exception for Flashy since launch less than a year ago.” said Flashy Co-Founder Aidan Christofferson.
“Our pre-seed funding has enabled us to quickly establish the market need and our position within it. Looking ahead to our next round of funding, we are excited to be able to work with investors and partners to capitalise on the demand beyond the UAE, and especially on our burgeoning opportunities in the KSA market, with accelerated demand for quality brand content at scale, to support the real estate market in particular.” Christofferson added.
To support growth and demand, Flashy is launching a new seed round raise of $2 million, just 10 months after incorporation which will enable the platform to extend further across the GCC, alongside current clients looking to utilise the platform across their regional portfolios.
Flashy Co-Founder Jacopo Trinca added: “Image quality and creativity combined with a fast turnaround is key for our clients who require content at scale. Less than 7 percent of professional photographers that apply are admitted onto the Flashy platform, to ensure consistency and quality, and we are expanding our pool of talented providers across the Middle East to meet demand.
“As more brands recognise the benefits of the service, which improves their conversion metrics, we are seeing the increase in shoot volumes backed predominantly by the real estate and hospitality sectors and we look forward to working with our clients as they trust Flashy with their visual content at scale across the MENA region, and in future, beyond.”
