Iconfinder has received a $1.5 million (€1.2 million) investment from VF Venture (Vækstfonden) the Danish state-owned funding arm, and a follow up investment from an American investor who has not yet been disclosed. The company has built a name for itself by providing easy search for icons used by web designers, app developers, and even anyone making a powerpoint presentation. With the funding, the company says it will continue to develop the core product and work on commercializing the large amount of traffic they see. Iconfinder’s founders also say they’re ready to take on Google’s search in this niche area.
“We want to challenge the already established players such as Google by focusing on a niche where Google’s approach is broad and therefore cannot compete effectively,” says Martin LeBlanc Eigtved, CEO and co-founder of Iconfinder. “The market for graphical computer icons is experiencing significant growth, especially due to the increase in touch screens that use icons both in programs and as a form of logo – such as Apple’s App Store.”
Iconfinder was started by CEO Martin LeBlanc Eigtved as a hobby project back in 2006. He worked as a freelance designer and was looking for a good way to find icons of high quality that he could use in his freelance work. In 2007 the website was officially launched, and saw good growth after a redesign in 2009. In 2011, Steffen Thilsted became a co-owner and CMO at Iconfinder, where together they won the Venture Cup’s software category. Nick Bruun took over as CTO in 2012 after being the lead developer at 23video.
The startup has seen a threefold increase in traffic since 2010, reaching 20 million searches and 1.1 million users. This has also put Iconfinder within the 900 most visited sites on Alexia.
