Armenia-based Wirestock, which has received Innovation and Regional Matching Grant (IMG/RMG), allows content creators to license their images and videos on the largest content marketplaces and platforms.

IMG/RMG competition is helping technological companies and teams to access international markets to promote and develop technological solutions for non-technological niches. During the previous 10 years, the program has proved its effectiveness. With the support of the grant, Wirestock team was able to further develop its technology and build the first version of the solution.

The Innovation and Regional Matching Grant competition is implemented by Enterprise Incubator Foundation in the scope of the “Matching Grants” Program with the assistance of the RA Government, RA Ministry of High-Tech Industry and the World Bank. The Grant Program aims at assisting companies operating in Yerevan and in the regions to develop their innovative tech products and solutions, as well as to direct them to promote traditional sectors of the economy.

Selling photos 100x faster

Mikayel Khachatryan, CEO of Wirestock, explains that the solution makes the process of uploading and distributing images 50-100 times faster by automating the steps related to keywording/tagging and captioning.

“We do that by using several computer vision models that automate the labeling of images which is the most time-consuming step of the process. We also detect locations, landmarks, logos and other important elements that help us label and curate images. We also give creators one-door access to all the monetization channels from a single place,” he adds.

Mikayel Khachatryan, CEO of Wirestock

While talking about how the idea came to the team, he notes that they had many creator friends who had a lot of amazing photos and videos. But many of them had never made or even had thoughts to make any money from their images and videos.

“Working in the content tech space for years, we knew that this type of photos and videos have commercial value and can be sold on various content marketplaces. We did some more research and realized that the process of uploading and licensing images is very time-consuming and cumbersome.

The main problems were tagging, captioning and listing images on multiple marketplaces. We decided to build a platform where all of these steps can be skipped and/or automated,” he adds.

 

The first version of Wirestock and the grant

“After we came up with the idea of Wirestock, we realized we needed additional funds to invest in technology. We had to release the initial product as early as possible to get feedback from our customers and improve to get to the product-market fit faster. The grant allowed us to do that for which we are thankful to the Enterprise Incubator Foundation,” Mikayel notes.

He adds that the grant allowed the startup to develop its technology and build the first version of Wirestock, as well as do several iterations and refine the product.

Mobile version and the next steps

Mikayel notes that Wirestock is currently only available as a web application. The team is planning to release the mobile version of the platform in nearest future.

“The mobile app will allow creators to upload and submit images directly from their smartphones. We also plan on adding new channels for monetization to create more opportunities for our creators,” he adds.