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Say ‘funding!’ Photography software firm Aryeo closes on $3.5M

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A little more than a year after its first funding announcement, real estate photography and media management solution Aryeo has hauled in another $3.5 million, according to a statement sent exclusively to Inman.

The round was led by 645 Ventures, with participation from Hyperplane VC. Aryeo has collected more than $7 million in venture capital.

Aryeo’s vertical SaaS (software-as-a-service) product facilitates workflow for creating and organizing an agent’s property photos, videos, floorplans and documents. It facilitates photo session scheduling, handles payment workflows and even proactively manages driving routes to subject properties.

“Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin, and Homes.com have begun differentiating themselves with unique and exclusive content, [such as] pictures, videos, floor plans, and 3D tours,” said Branick Weix, CEO of Aryeo and former real estate photographer, in the statement. “Photographers are the key enablers of this shift. We are building the best-in-class software to help them achieve this and grow their businesses for years to come.”

Aryeo also helps agents by automatically producing single-property websites with custom domains and calls-to-action and uses an in-app design experience to build listing flyers and social media content.

The company is aiming to expand its sales team with the new funding. It recently hired Butch Hodson away from OJO Labs to lead sales.

While serving real estate photography and flattening their business processes is Aryeo’s core competency, it bills itself as “business software for creators.” Photographers today tend to offer ancillary creative services, such as 3D tours, drone photography and video marketing.

“Real estate photographers and media companies are an overlooked and integral part of the real estate process,” Weix said.

HomeJab, too, provides scheduling and media management tools for agents and photographers. It’s also delved into photography market data reporting.

From floor plans and dollhouse views to virtual staging and clickable meta-tags, the evolution of real estate content has led to a rise in vendors servicing vendors. This trend allows creative professionals to quickly scale because of the storage and quick-file transfer power of the internet, in addition to its general ability to conduct business and connect people across time zones.

Alex Aaron, owner of Archi-Pix Photography, said Aryeo’s software has been a tremendous help in his company’s geographical expansion from one market in the Midwest to many more there and into the South.

“Their automation and software helps us service thousands of agents and deliver a superior client experience,” Aaron said.

Email Craig Rowe