Olapic (http://www.olapic.com), a company that lets consumers become part of a brand's visual voice by showcasing their user generated images and videos into a company's e-commerce experience, today announced that it closed a $5 million Series A round of funding led by Fung Capital USA and Longworth Venture Partners, with participation by existing investors Great Oaks and Scout Ventures.

'We are pleased to announce our partnership with Olapic, the leader in visual commerce. Olapic's proven ability to engage the shoppers and to shape the brand image while enhancing the brands' sales performance is a powerful combination that no e-tailer can do without,' said John Seung, partner at Fung Capital USA.

'Olapic's technology solution uniquely leverages two powerful consumer behaviors -- social photo sharing and shopping -- to drive meaningful results for leading retailers. We are excited to participate in this round of funding to help accelerate the Company's growth,' said Jim Savage, partner at Longworth Venture Partners.

Olapic empowers retailers to take advantage of shifting consumer-shopping behavior that is driving an evolution/revolution in e-commerce, specifically how consumers discover, evaluate and interact with products online. New ways to browse and curate products have given rise to shoppers who care less about studio quality photography and more about how products are being used by other consumers. Olapic's SaaS product is allowing brands to leverage these user-generated photos/videos to drive sales through an increase in e-commerce conversion.

'By integrating the features that resonate with consumers on sites like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook (and a host of other sites), e-commerce companies can take advantage of this new shopping movement and meet the changing behaviors of their customers, all while reaping the financial benefits that go hand-in-hand,' said Pau Sabria, co-founder of Olapic. 'We call this practice Customer Inspired Commerce and Olapic is helping retailers embrace it.'

'Our product has become a window for customers to see how people use their products after purchasing. This provides valuable information to both our partners and their customers, and we plan to continue working on making that information more relevant for them. The product roadmap will focus on giving the customer more information to get inspired and informed and on providing retailers more insights about how their customers are actually using their products,' said Luis Sanz, co-founder of Olapic.

Olapic's SaaS solution enables retailers to increase engagement, time spent and conversions on their e-commerce properties. Additional benefits include reducing product returns by showing more accurate imagery of a product, enabling their customers to find new products, and collecting data on customer preferences based on imagery.

In addition to its Series A funding, Olapic also announces that, within the last 30 days, they have signed customers that include Alex and Ani, Desigual, Equipment, New Balance, Teva, Vineyard Vines and Westward Leaning among others. By using Olapic's technology and unique algorithms, brands have successfully removed the heavy lifting of obtaining and curating customer's photos in their product pages. Moreover, brands have increased their conversion rates by 5-7%, nearly doubled the amount of time customers spent on their web page, and experienced 5x the engagement rate when compared to text-only reviews.

'Showing how our customers use and style our products, and letting them be a part of our brand's voice, is the future of shopping online,' said Hilary Keates, Director of Global Marketing & Brand Management at New Balance. 'Through our relationship with Olapic, we have been able to foster engagement and enhance our relationships with our customers by giving them inspiration and insight into how a product will fit into their day-to-day life.'

About Olapic

Olapic is the leading visual commerce platform for collecting, curating, showcasing and measuring crowd sourced photos and videos. The platform provides e-commerce retailers, brands and publishers with tools to engage their customers and support a strong community built on visual content. This allows consumers to make more educated purchasing decisions, discover new products, and connect to the brand's community. Olapic leverages photos and videos from Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and more and makes brands shoppable. For more information about Olapic, please visit: www.olapic.com

About Fung Capital USA

Fung Capital USA is the private investment arm of the families of Victor Fung and William Fung who are the controlling shareholders of Li & Fung, a public company that sources, distributes and retails consumer products globally with over $20B in revenues and 35,000 employees in over 40 countries. Fung Capital USA invests primarily in B2B technology companies that enable omni-channel retailing and supply chain efficiency. For more information about Fung Capital USA, please visit: www.fungcapitalusa.com

About Longworth Venture Partners

Longworth Venture Partners, a Boston based venture firm, invests in early and seed stage Internet, digital media and software companies. Founded in 1999, Longworth leverages the deep operating experience of its principals and its market-driven research process to identify and help grow the leading companies of tomorrow.