As a little history, Iconfinder started out as a directory of free icons for developers to use in their projects, then expanding to premium watermarked icons. They raised their initial capital by a few Danish investors and 500 startups, before June of 2012 raising $1.5 million from VF Venture. At that time they were the 900th most popular website in the world, according to the Alexia rankings, a number that has dropped to the respectable 2000’s. Despite whatever has affected the rankings, LeBlank says that growth is going good. “Marketplaces are self reinforcing,” says Eigtved. “We have a lot of free users and exposure with designers, and things are going faster and faster and faster – a positive feedback cycle.”
As you can imagine, Apple’s decision to update the look and feel of iOS to iOS 7 was a great restart for the icon industry and for Iconfinder. “For us, how do you sell an icon? If someone buys a house icon, why do you need to buy another. Then Apple comes in and says all icons have to be outlined, so suddenly everyone is buying icons again,” says Eigtved.
Eigtved says that these SVG icons are going to be the next major trend in the icon world, and that they’re going to be the first marketplace in this space that’s successful.