Founded in 2016 by Guillaume Lestrade and Thomas Rebaud, Meero embodied French success. A platform capable of delivering professional photos and videos within 24 hours using artificial intelligence. The company, which collaborated with Airbnb, UberEats and BNP Paribas Real Estate, had more than 40,000 customers in around a hundred countries and relied on a global network of independent photographers.
But the mechanics seized up, the marketplace model, dependent on outsourced labor and low margins, came up against the erosion of marketing budgets and the rise of user-generated content. Despite several attempts to diversify, the corporate photo market contracted and Meero had to reinvent itself in order not to disappear.
In 2022, the company made the radical decision to close its still active marketplace to transform into a software publisher. Repositioned under the name Diffuselyit has refocused on an artificial intelligence SaaS offer applied to the creation of visuals for businesses. The idea was no longer to connect photographers to clients, but to allow brands to produce their own images on a large scale using proprietary models.
This complete pivot made it possible to start from a new base, but it came at the cost of a profound restructuring: technological reorientation, mass departures, overhaul of governance and abandonment of entire sections of historical activity. Three years later, Diffusely claims 12 million euros in annual recurring revenue and 1,500 customers, mainly in the fashion and automotive sectors.
The company sold ProperShot, its product dedicated to real estate photography, to Nodalview, in order to focus its resources on two content-intensive verticals. A decision motivated as much by technological coherence as by the need to free up cash to support growth.
The raising of 11 million euros announced this fall is part of this consolidation logic. The tour was led by Alven, Eurazeo and Prime Venturesalready shareholders, with the entry of 50 Partners.
Diffusely has managed to recreate a credible growth story, the company is now positioned as a verticalized player in visual AI, with two flagship products: CarCutterfor dealer networks, and AutoRetouchfor fashion brands. By relying on more than 200 million proprietary images, it promises an 80% reduction in production costs and a 90% faster time-to-market.
Investors are banking on a consolidation of the model by 2026, the target date for profitability. But the real challenge of the pivot is no longer just technological. It is cultural and financial. Meero had built a paper empire on external growth and hyper-scaling. Diffusely proves that a company born in the frenzy of the 2010s can survive in a cycle of austerity and recreate itself, a challenge carried out with talent under the direction of Gaétan Rougevin-Baville and the Diffusely teams.
In his first life, Meero raised a total of $293 millionwith a final operation in 2020 who had elevated her to the rank of unicorn. The startup had managed to convince major funds like EURAZEO, WHITE STAR CAPITAL, AGLAÉ VENTURES, or even ALVEN.
