Eye-Fi, Direct Camera To Computer Photo Transfer Service, Receives $5.5 Million in Funding

Eye-Fi[1] is a company looking to solve a simple problem. In order to share pictures on the Internet, camera owners have to transfer the files to their computer and then upload it. Eye-Fi is developing technologies to eliminate the need to transfer pictures to the computer and to even be near a computer. This would be made possible by WiFi.

Eye-Fi raised $5.5 million in Series A funding by Opus Capital and Shasta Ventures. With the funding, Eye-Fi will enhance operations and product development.  Opus Capital[2] has previously invested in people search engine Spock and Shasta[3] invested in Tumri Inc. about a week ago.

“Digital cameras have made it very easy to take pictures, but it’s a chore to get photos off the camera to a place where you can print or share them,” stated Robert Coneybeer, the managing director for Shasta Ventures “This is a very real problem affecting both consumers who own digital cameras, and companies in the digital photography industry looking to boost profits. We see a huge market opportunity for Eye-Fi because anyone with a Wi-Fi network and a digital camera is a potential customer.”

Eye-Fi has an interesting model because there are many cellphones that have built-in features to transfer pictures online. The way I see it is that they’ll be competing against such features so they need to find a way to “switch” users of such technology.

[1] eye.fi
[2] Pulse 2.0: Opus Capital coverage
[3] Pulse 2.0: Shasta Ventures coverage

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