
Lobster is a platform which enables brands, agencies and the media to licence visual content directly from social media users. Using pioneering AI technology, it trawls through all of the main social networks (Instagram, Flickr, Facebook, Vk, YouTube, Vimeo), along with several of the largest cloud storage providers. Billions of affordable images and videos in an instant - live, unusual and so much more authentic than stock. Each and every day, billions of images and videos are being created which are more authentic than stock photography. But it’s time-consuming to find and source something that perfectly fits your brand, media campaign or story. That’s why they created Lobster - to do the heavy lifting for you. Lobster’s Artificial Intelligence and algorithmic engineering uses image recognition alongside with metadata to find high quality (and relevant) real-time content anywhere on the planet. Content created by regular people, just going about their day to day lives - original, unusual and genuine.

Lobster is a platform which enables brands, agencies and the media to licence visual content directly from social media users. Using pioneering AI technology, it trawls through all of the main social networks (Instagram, Flickr, Facebook, Vk, YouTube, Vimeo), along with several of the largest cloud storage providers. Billions of affordable images and videos in an instant - live, unusual and so much more authentic than stock. Each and every day, billions of images and videos are being created which are more authentic than stock photography. But it’s time-consuming to find and source something that perfectly fits your brand, media campaign or story. That’s why they created Lobster - to do the heavy lifting for you. Lobster’s Artificial Intelligence and algorithmic engineering uses image recognition alongside with metadata to find high quality (and relevant) real-time content anywhere on the planet. Content created by regular people, just going about their day to day lives - original, unusual and genuine.
What they do: AI-powered marketplace to discover and license user-generated photos and videos from social and cloud platforms
Founded: 2014
Headcount (reported): 26 employees
Known funding: Approximately $1.96M total (Series A ~£1M in Jan 2017)
User-generated visual content discovery and licensing for brands, agencies and media
2014
Marketplace / Digital Media / Content Licensing
£1,000,000
Round reported Jan 2017; Nikolay Katorzhnov reported to contribute £500,000 with additional UK and international angels participating.
$100,000
Reported early seed funding around $100K after launch
“KL10CH (aka "The Key") named as committed/lead investor for Series A; individual angel participation reported”