The round was led by David Jones, founder of the world's first brandtech company You & Mr. Jones and former Global CEO of advertising conglomerate Havas. Also joining as investors in Pixlee are GS Shop, Korea's largest shopping conglomerate and a division of GS Group, and Brian Weiner, chairman of ad agency 360i. With the capital, Pixlee will increase headcount in sales and product development to continue integrating customer-created content, such as photos and video, into brands' web, mobile and ecommerce platforms.

Founded in 2012, Pixlee works with more than 150 brands, such as Kenneth Cole, The Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, Charlotte Russe and Mattel, helping them to better market and sell by using real customer photos and videos. Pixle's visual marketing platform curates this content, manages permission rights and easily integrates the content directly into multi-channel browsing and shopping experiences. The end result is that shoppers who see an image they like or identify with can immediately click-to-buy, and brands cultivate an authentic relationship with customers that dramatically increases long-term loyalty.
The company's approach has proven to profoundly impact sales - shoppers that engage with Pixlee-managed content on a brand's website are, on average, 2x more likely to make a purchase. Using Pixlee across desktop and mobile, brands see an average increase in order value of 6%, and with Pixlee's social commerce solution, brands have increased traffic to ecommerce product pages (PDPs) by an average of 22%.

For example, a fashion brand can integrate images of real people wearing its apparel curated from social media sites such as Instagram, directly onto its website with Pixlee's platform. Each image can then be tagged with a SKU so that shoppers can view the picture and then easily click-to-buy that product. Using Pixlee's platform, a marketer immediately sees which images are driving the most website traffic and conversions - enabling them to showcase engaging pictures more prominently across marketing channels, while removing ones that aren't resonating with customers.

'The best way to build a brand today is to use the voice of your own customer,' said Kyle Wong, Pixlee co-founder and CEO. 'Pixlee's approach puts the customer at the center of brand marketing and has proven to increase sales as well as engagement and loyalty. Our new investors will help us further fortify our leadership position and grow our business.'

'The ability to both leverage more personal relationships between brands and their most engaged customers and enhance marketing performance puts Pixlee firmly at the heart of today's modern marketing organization,' said David Jones, Pixlee investor. 'Pixlee is one of the companies defining the future of people-powered marketing and proving that great ideas deliver even greater ROI.'
Joining Pixlee's board are David Jones and Jonathan Becher, Chief Digital Officer of SAP; Jennifer Aaker, General Atlantic Professor of Marketing at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business joins as an advisor. Founded in 2012, Pixlee has raised a total of $5.7 million in financing to-date.