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Danish Iconfinder Raises $1.5 Million (arcticstartup.com)

7 points by iconfinder ↗ HN
Iconfinder has received a $1.5 million (€1.2 million) investment from VF Venture (Vækstfonden) the Danish state-owned funding arm, and a follow up investment from an American investor who has not yet been disclosed. The company has built a name for itself by providing easy search for icons used by web designers, app developers, and even anyone making a powerpoint presentation. With the funding, the company says it will continue to develop the core product and work on commercializing the large amount of traffic they see. Iconfinder's founders also say they're ready to take on Google's search in this niche area.

7 comments

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dot
The top 1000 Alexa ranking is impressive. I was scratching my head thinking that has got to be a tiny niche, but apparently it's something a lot of people need.

Amazing really. Execute well and you can be one the top 1000 biggest sites on the internet. No matter how trivial or small your idea may seem. Wow!

Skål!

iconfinder
I think you have to think about icons in more broad terms ranging from a generic symbol database (used by designers to find good metaphors for their own icons) to graphics used in presentations. The use cases for small well-designed symbols are plenty.
taphangum
I'd be interested to know how you managed to grow in this niche market. Especially if it was SEO
iconfinder
I think the most important part of growing was focusing on high quality content. 50% of the visitors are entering iconfinder.com in the browser or clicking a bookmark. The site has grown because it was recommended by the existing users. The user base is homogenic (web designers and developers) who often work together in teams and therefore talk a lot together.

It was only recently (2010-2011) I started really focusing on SEO.

taphangum
Would you say that that 50% first found the site through a search engine though? I know i did. And only after did i start talking about it. Love the service btw
iconfinder
I'm not 100% sure how the users find it initially, but about 25% of total traffic is from Google now - many come via Image search. Thanks!
sgdesign
IconFinder is a great site, very happy for them! And it's got a lot of potential beyond merely being a search engine.