AI image recognition company Pomvom completes $40 million IPO
The Israeli startup raised $11.5 million in Tel Aviv Stock Exchange offering a year after completing a private funding round at a $30 million valuation
Israeli AI image recognition company Pomvom has completed its initial public offering on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange at a valuation of NIS
135 million (approximately $40 million). Pomvom sold 28% of its shares for NIS 38 million ($11.5 million). The company completed a private funding round last year at a valuation of $30 million.
Pomvom was founded in 2015 by Yehuda Minkovicz (CEO) and Shmuel Assa and the two jointly held 25% of the shares that were listed. The company has to date raised $12 million from private investors who owned the remainder of the shares.
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Photo: Yair Sagi
Pomvom's AI image recognition technology enables site operators in the entertainment and attractions industry to provide guests with the chance to capture images that would have previously been impossible, and view and order content from a personalized digital album through the attraction’s app. Users upload a selfie and receive content captured of them in real-time. By purchasing content on the app, operators can bypass the need for visitors to stand in queues waiting to collect personalized content. The company has partnership agreements with the likes of Legoland, Madame Tussauds and the London Eye.
Pomvom acquired Picsolve, a British digital content capture partner for visitor attractions, last summer for just one million pounds after
Covid-19 handed the UK company a deathblow. Picsolve had reached annual revenue of around $100 million thanks to its photography sites in amusement parks and numerous attractions in Europe and North America, but their closure due to the pandemic brought its income to a grinding halt.
The attraction photo industry was estimated at $1 billion a year in 2019 and is largely dependent on millennials, who are the primary users of smartphones for photography purposes, which suits Pomvom's model to view and order content from a personalized digital album.
Additional large photography markets are those of the sports industry, which is estimated at $2 billion a year, the water park market, estimated at $500 million, and the cruise market estimated at $300 million.
