Pickapic.in, an India specific stock images site modelled on the lines of Shutterstock

Those in the publishing or media industry know how important images are in our line of business. The proverb, 'a picture is worth thousand words' has never been more relevant in another business. We all know of image aggregation sites like Getty Images and Shutterstock which are great for international images. But if you are looking for Indian pictures on these sites, it's akin to searching for a needle in a haystack!

For Indian images, Imagesbazaar is an option and now Pickapic.in is offering customers India specific vectors, illustrations and images. It is founded by Sameer Shinde, and the idea for the site came to him during the course of work at Nucleus Communications – another venture he runs. “I regularly encountered a lack of quality images, vectors and illustrations with Indian designs, Indian reference and relevant to the Indian audience. Existing platforms have a limitation in terms of relevance to the context as well as pricing. That is where the idea of providing a platform with relevant Indian illustrations and design cropped up. After a detailed research we observed that the vectors category was on the rise internationally and hence decided to focus on a platform that would provide illustrations and vectors relevant to the Indian context,” says Sameer.

After graduating in computer engineering, Sameer worked for four-and-half years with Bharti Airtel before he decided to start up. Nucleus is an integrated communications agency that has been around for last two years. Pickapic is his second entrepreneurial outing. He pegs the visual content market of India to be in the region of Rs 1,200 crore and hopes to see Pickapic be a leader in the space eventually.

Launched in January this year, the startup has received an angel investment of Rs 1.5 million from Esteem Agencies Private Limited. Sameer claims to have already received 350 registrations and orders worth Rs 75,000 within a month. “We are looking at creating an organised space in this niche and want to garner about 5-7% market share in the next three years,” he says ambitiously.

Though modelled around Shutterstock, Pickapic has defined its niche by offering only vectors and illustrations. They are creating their own stock of vectors and have an in-house team working to create the initial stock. Next, they would also invite contributions from graphic artists, designers and illustrators and host them as Rights Managed vectors and illustrations, explains Sameer. They also have plans to diversify into more visual content like still images, animated characters and video stocks in the future. However, every expansion they do will continue to be focused on India, says Sameer. Customers have the option of buying a single vector from the site or opting for a subscription package priced between Rs 5,000 and Rs 50,000. The target market for Pickapic includes graphic design agencies, advertising agencies and digital marketing among others.

At present, Pickapic is using social media and digital platforms to market itself, including Facebook, Twitter and Google Adwords. The startup has 11 people across design, business development, social and digital media management and CRM teams. Besides increasing its portfolio of offerings, Sameer says they also plan to create geographical presence in Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune and Bangalore over the next one year.

The most painful thing about starting Pickapic, according to Sameer was arranging the funding. “The private banking system in India is highly negative while supporting startups. Fortunately for us, we got an angel investor to provide the initial capital to get things rolling,” he says.

Do you know of any other Indian image related sites? If yes, tell us about it.