Popsa is now officially a Certified B Corporation® (or B Corp for short).

This announcement reflects our ongoing mission to combine technology, creativity, and responsibility in a way that makes a meaningful impact – not just on our customers, but on our planet and the people around us.

Why Becoming a B Corp is a Big Deal

B Corp Certification isn’t simply a badge of honour; it’s a rigorous process led by the nonprofit B Lab, which evaluates a company’s entire social and environmental impact. Unlike other certifications that might assess just a single product or service, B Corp looks at everything; from the materials you use and how you treat employees, to how you engage with your community and tackle governance and transparency.

For us at Popsa, it’s a formal acknowledgment of the work we’ve been doing behind the scenes for years. Our mission has always been about making it easier for people to relive their memories, using generative AI and cutting-edge design to transform everyday photos into tangible keepsakes. But just as importantly, it’s about doing so responsibly, in a way that supports local communities, protects the environment, and respects every individual in our orbit.

Popsa’s Sustainability Journey

If you’ve been following our blog, you’ll know that environmental responsibility has been a top priority for us. Over the last few years, we’ve taken several concrete steps to reduce our impact:

♻️ Carbon Offsetting for Every Product

Since January 2024, we’ve committed to offsetting the emissions generated in the production of each product. At the end of every quarter, we measure our total carbon footprint using standards like ISO 14044:2006 & ISO 14040:2006, and then purchase high-quality, verified carbon credits to neutralise this impact.

🌱 Plastic-Free Packaging

All our packaging is plant-based and fully recyclable. We eliminated single-use plastic wherever possible, ensuring that everything from product boxes to shipping materials can be disposed of responsibly.

🌎 Local Production Partners

By working with production facilities close to our largest customer bases, we cut down on long-distance transportation. This helps reduce our overall carbon emissions and also supports local economies.

🌳 Responsibly Sourced Paper

We only use FSC-certified paper that meets strict sustainability standards. FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification guarantees that the paper used in our photobooks and other products comes from responsibly managed forests, preserving biodiversity and respecting local communities.

These initiatives were just the start. As we aligned our business with the B Corp framework, we found ourselves going deeper: reevaluating our governance, measuring our community impact, refining internal policies, and looking at how each business decision could bring broader benefits.

What We Had to Prove to B Lab

B Lab’s certification process is designed to rigorously assess every facet of a company’s impact. They look holistically at governance, treatment of employees, community engagement, environmental stewardship, and the value delivered to customers.

In our case, Popsa had to show that our internal governance structures don’t just serve shareholders, but also protect the interests of employees, local communities, and the planet. This meant revising our Articles of Association so we’re legally bound to consider the well-being of all our stakeholders whenever strategic decisions are made.

We also had to prove that our workforce is treated with fairness and respect. We highlighted our commitment to offering competitive compensation, fostering an inclusive workplace, and regularly seeking feedback on how we can improve.

As for community impact, demonstrating how we partner with local production facilities, donate to relevant causes, and support social initiatives was key in showing that our local presence truly benefits the neighbourhoods we operate in.

On the environmental front, B Lab required detailed evidence of how we measure and mitigate our impact. We presented data on everything from our carbon offsetting (which we calculate every quarter) to our switch to plastic-free packaging and FSC-certified paper,initiatives designed to lower our footprint across the board. Lastly, they scrutinised our relationship with our customers, ensuring we safeguard privacy, deliver high-quality products responsibly, and maintain honest, transparent communication.

We were therefore audited to confirm our investment in stringent data protection measures and user-friendly design so everyone – including technophobes – can preserve their memories. Our generative AI engine is built to be both powerful and respectful of user privacy, an ethos we believe sets us apart in the AI field.

After providing detailed evidence from across the business, undergoing a risk review, and scoring the necessary 80+ points on the B Impact Assessment, we officially joined the growing B Corp community of over 9,000 businesses worldwide.

Why B Corp Matters to You, Our Customers

You might be reading this thinking, “That’s all well and good, but how does it affect me?” Here’s why B Corp Certification should matter to you:

Trust and Transparency

B Corp Certification is your signal that we walk the talk. It’s not just marketing jargon; we’ve been vetted by an independent body and met their high standards.

Better Products, Better World

From the materials we use to the projects we support through carbon offsets, every Popsa product you purchase is backed by our commitment to do right by the planet, and everyone on it.

Continuous Improvement

B Corps must re-certify every three years, so we can’t just sit still. We pledge to keep setting higher goals, tracking our progress, and being open about where we can still do better.

Beyond Certification: What’s Next?

Our B Corp status is a fantastic milestone, but it’s not the end of the road. Looking ahead:

• Roadmap to Net Zero: While offsetting carbon is a positive step, we ultimately want to reduce our emissions before they’re created. We’re in the process of developing a detailed Responsibility Roadmap that aligns with the global target of net-zero emissions by 2050 (and 50% reduction by 2030).
• Further Innovation in Materials: We’re exploring more advanced, sustainable materials for our products. Our hope is to introduce everything from recycled plastics for our photo tiles to even more eco-friendly inks in the near future.
• Community Impact: Expect to see more local partnerships, not just in manufacturing but in educational and social programs. We want to apply our AI expertise to empower communities that might benefit from digital tools and skills training.

Join Us on This Journey

Being a B Corp means creating a community of businesses, customers, and stakeholders who believe in a better way forward. Your support enables us to keep innovating, keep offsetting, and keep exploring new ways to reduce our impact, while still making the process of preserving memories as effortless as possible.

To learn more about our sustainability efforts (past, present, and future), check out our Sustainability Journey blog post and follow us on social media for real-time updates. We’d love to hear your ideas on how we can go further. After all, this is a collective journey.

Thank You for Believing in Us

Finally, to every customer who’s helped Popsa grow – your feedback, enthusiasm, and passion for our products motivate us to keep pushing boundaries. Becoming a B Corp is one more way we’re striving to ensure our growth is responsible and genuinely beneficial to everyone involved.

Here’s to the next chapter in our sustainability story, and to celebrating your life’s most meaningful moments in a way that respects and protects the only planet we have.

7 min read

Contents

1. Small Steps, Big Impact

2. Self Reflection

3. Sustainability Landscape

4. The Road Ahead

5. Commitment to Transparency

Small Steps, Big Impact

At Popsa, we're passionate about creating beautiful, personalised products that capture your memories. As we've grown, we've realised that our impact goes beyond just the emotions we’ve brought to our customers – it extends to the environment too. That's why since 2022 we’ve embarked on a journey to understand our social and environmental sustainability and find ways to be better as a company. We've already begun taking small, meaningful steps in the right direction, which will ultimately create a significant impact as we continue to grow. We decided to share some of our journey, showcasing both our achievements over the last few years but also identifying areas we aim to improve.

Self Reflection

Before we could implement positive changes, we first needed to understand our environmental impact. Every physical product contributes to carbon dioxide emissions at various stages of its lifecycle—from raw material extraction and manufacturing to transportation, use, and disposal. Recognising that our most significant impact comes from the production and delivery of our products, we chose to address this area as our top priority.

Back in 2022, we conducted a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of all our products. Given the project's extensive scope, we focused on three key phases to start with: Materials, Manufacturing, and Delivery, creating a Cradle-to-Customer [1] assessment. Working closely with our suppliers, we documented every material and process in our production and delivery chain. Then using secondary databases such as Ecoinvent we calculated our footprint for every single product we produce.

Sustainability Landscape

Using this data we were able to calculate our 2022 physical footprint, as 933 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e) [2] for over a million orders produced and shipped. To give you a sense of scale, that's comparable to the annual carbon footprint of 73 people [3] or the electricity required to power 184 homes [4] for an entire year. We will be using this figure as our baseline footprint moving forward that will allow us to track our progress.

For 2023, despite Popsa's year on year growth, we proudly reduced our physical footprint by 26 tCO2e, bringing the total down to 917 tCO2e. This achievement reflects the impactful steps we've already taken, from transitioning to more sustainable materials to refining our processes.

As we continue to expand, we’ll be using carbon intensity based on revenue, as our main metric to track our footprint. While our total overall emissions may increase with our growth, this approach ensures that we’re becoming more efficient and sustainable in relation to our size. Our carbon intensity score for 2023 was 43.1tCO2e/£1m revenue, which was 3.3% lower than the previous year, and we will continue to report on this at the end of every year through our yearly Impact Report. You can also track our live carbon footprint and other environmental and social sustainability metrics over on our Sustainability Tracker (updated quarterly).

Bright Spots and Areas to Grow

Conducting an LCA not only enabled us to determine our yearly carbon footprint, but also provided valuable insights into our performance across different areas. It shed light on both our strengths, and areas where improvements are needed, allowing us to start creating a plan of action.

Where We Shine

• Plant Based
  Over 80% of what we produce is made using paper which is not only plant based, but super biodegradable and one of the most widely recycled materials on the planet. This helps make paper an extremely sustainable product. What's more, all paper used in our products is FSC certified and comes from sustainable sources. This means for every tree used to make paper, another is grown in its place.

• Built to Last
  While both virgin and recycled paper have its benefits, we opt for virgin paper from FSC-certified sources over recycled paper to maintain superior print quality and ensure stringent control over sourcing. This choice guarantees our products meet the highest print quality while supporting sustainable forestry practices.

• Made to Order
  All our products are made to order meaning we only produce what is needed, and nothing is thrown away. We also print everything digitally which has a lower carbon footprint than other more traditional printing methods. While digital printing does consume more energy and ink/toner compared to offset presses, it minimises the use of chemicals, requires less water, and generates less waste compared to offset or lithographic printing [5].

• Locality
  Our location of print facilities in each region globally means shorter delivery distances to our customers resulting in a lower delivery footprint. We are also working to add more facilities to improve this further.

Where we Strive

• Materials
  We found some of our materials have larger emissions associated when compared to more sustainable options, including the plastics we use for Photo Tiles. After extensive testing we switched to using 100% recycled plastic for our Black Photo Tiles, resulting in a 60% lower carbon footprint compared to the previous material while still keeping the quality. Since January 2024 these new Photo Tiles are now in circulation and estimated to save around 24 tCO2e this year.

• Single use plastics
  We identified the use of single-use plastics in some of our packaging, including shrink wrapping our Photobooks. In March 2023, we conducted a trial to eliminate plastic wrapping for all books produced at our UK and US production sites. The initiative proved successful so we can now proudly say all our packaging is plastic free across all our sites. Not only does this prevent around 1.79 tonnes of plastic from ending up in landfill but also avoids an estimated 5.46 tCO2e from being emitted into the atmosphere this year.

• Renewable energy
  Although some of our facilities already use 100% renewable energy, we're working closely with our suppliers and energy providers to extend this practice across all our operations.

• Wastage
  While we don’t send anything to landfill, we acknowledge that our processes generate a significant amount of paper offcuts and wastage. We're currently working on optimising our processes to reduce waste and minimise environmental impact. In August 2023 we successfully eliminated our use of Silver Halide globally. This significant shift has already resulted in an estimated saving of over 100,000 litres of water from 3.25 million prints, as well as the various chemicals used.

The Road Ahead

This is just the beginning of our sustainability journey and we're committed to setting ambitious targets to reduce our emissions in line with global climate goals. We'll be exploring everything from more sustainable materials to energy-efficient production processes. Take a sneak peek at our upcoming initiatives below:

Working with Sustainability Experts

We were thrilled to announce our exciting partnership with Futureproof, a leading sustainability software and platform dedicated to helping businesses make a positive impact on both people and the planet. We will be working closely with them moving forward to ensure the actions we take really do make a difference. Sustainability can be a complex and ever evolving landscape and having Futureproof to guide us on this journey will be invaluable.

Achieving Net Zero

Achieving net zero by 2050 is the ultimate global sustainability goal, but we're committed to doing it the right way. Rather than rush to join the trend, we believe in fully understanding the complexities of our carbon footprint and creating a clear, actionable roadmap to reach net zero. It's not just about hitting a target; it's about making meaningful, lasting changes that truly reduce our environmental impact. We will be building out this roadmap over the next year, but we will ultimately achieve this by doing the following:

• 1. Offsetting
  Since the start of 2024 we have been offsetting the footprint for every order we produce. These projects include renewable energy initiatives, clean cookstoves and clean water community programs, and forest conservation projects. You can see our progress and some of the projects we have invested into at our live Climate Action page.
  

• 2. Reducing
  We've already made strides in reducing our footprint by adopting more sustainable materials and refining our processes. With additional initiatives in the pipeline, we're actively developing a comprehensive roadmap to guide us toward achieving Net Zero.
  

• 3. Removing
  After we've reduced our footprint as much as possible, our focus will shift towards actively removing CO2 from the atmosphere. While technologies like Direct Air Capture (DAC) are still developing, they are rapidly advancing and will be vital in the fight against climate change. In addition to this, we’re exploring natural methods of carbon removal and storage, such as investing in blue carbon sinks along coastlines and marine habitats. We're keeping a close watch on these innovations and will collaborate with environmental agencies to begin CO2 removal efforts in the near future.
  By taking this approach, we're ensuring that our journey to net zero is both responsible and effective, setting a solid foundation for a sustainable future.

Sustainable Materials & Processes

We are continuing to look at more sustainable materials and processes in the manufacturing of our products. As with our Black Photo Tiles we have now managed to produce a high quality 100% recycled plastic White Photo Tile which should be in circulation by the end of the year also.

Digital Footprint

While we've concentrated on reducing our physical footprint, we recognize that our digital operations also carry an environmental impact. Our future plans will include exploring the effects of our cloud storage, server hosting, advertising, and other digital activities.

B-Corp

We believe B-Corp is the gold standard of accreditations that align strongly with Popsa’s core values. This is why we are working hard to achieve B-Corp certification and join some of the inspiring companies leading the way. This is a lengthy audit that touches many areas of the business including Environment, Social and Governance (ESG), and will keep you updated on our progress.

Evolving LCA’s

LCAs are intended for continuous improvement, and future updates will incorporate the End of Life phase, advancing towards a Cradle-to-Cradle system to fully assess our products' impact throughout their entire lifecycle.

Commitment to Transparency

Transparency is key in sustainability, so we'll be sharing our progress with you along the way via our yearly impact reports which you can view here. After all, the memories we help our customers to preserve are meant to be enjoyed for generations to come – and we want to ensure we're doing our part to preserve the planet too. Stay tuned for more updates on our sustainability efforts.

Download 📄 Impact Report 2023

[1] Currently excludes all upstream processes related to the extraction, processing, and transportation of raw materials till more data is collected.
[2] CO2e is the unit of measurement for the impact of different greenhouse gases (GHGs) on global warming.
[3] https://www.pawprint.eco/eco-blog/average-carbon-footprint-uk
[4] https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator#results.
[5] https://eartheclipse.com/environment/environmental-benefits-digital-printing.html

Following the immense success and popularity of its mobile app, Popsa has now expanded its capabilities by launching Popsa for Web, allowing users to create their personalised Photobooks directly from their desktop and mobile browsers.

Popsa’s native iOS and Android apps have won several accolades for their user-friendly interface and seamless experience, making Popsa a go-to platform for photobook enthusiasts. The introduction of Popsa for Web marks a significant milestone for the company, as it broadens its reach and provides an enhanced and convenient experience for users who prefer working on a larger screen.

Peter Harrison, Lead Product Manager on the project, shares the company's vision for web:

“Our objective centered around broadening the accessibility of the Photobook creation process, targeting a broader user base. By leveraging our acclaimed mobile application expertise and transposing it onto the web platform, our intention was to provide users with heightened adaptability and streamlined convenience when it comes to creating their personalised Photobooks.”

Popsa for Web offers an array of features and enhancements to elevate the photobook creation process. Users can now take advantage of a larger workspace, enabling them to view and arrange their photos with ease. The enhanced drag-and-drop functionality allows seamless customisation, making it simple for users to position their images, add text, and customise layouts according to their preferences.

Tom Cohen, CTO of Popsa, highlights the technical prowess behind the web offering, stating:

“We want to ensure that our web experience is as smooth and fast as our mobile experience. Popsa for Web leverages the latest technology to provide a responsive and intuitive user experience, making Photobook creation effortless and enjoyable.”

The launch on web follows the recognition of Popsa’s continual growth and success. Popsa was named as one of the 50 fastest-growing technology companies in the UK by Deloitte in 2022. The Financial Times also ranked Popsa as the 136th fastest-growing company in Europe in 2023, as well as the 16th fastest-growing company in eCommerce.

Liam Houghton, CEO of Popsa, emphasises the importance of cross-platform synchronisation:

“At Popsa, we've always strived to put our users at the heart of everything we do. We understand that preserving and reliving all of life’s moments should be effortless, enjoyable, and accessible to all. With the launch of Popsa for Web, we've taken a giant leap forward in fulfilling these needs, ensuring that creating stunning photobooks is now more convenient and flexible than ever before.

“None of this would have been possible without the tireless dedication and unwavering passion of our people at Popsa. They have poured their creativity, expertise, and countless hours into crafting a seamless web experience that perfectly caters to the unique requirements of our customers. This milestone achievement is a testament to their remarkable work and commitment to our product.”

With the launch on web, Popsa aims to reach a wider audience and extend its accessibility beyond mobile app users. The web platform already allows users to create Christmas Ornaments and Photo Tiles. Now it provides an opportunity for those who prefer larger screens to explore the full potential of Photobook creation.

Declan Mellett, Chairman, discusses the broader scope of the web app:

“We are thrilled to announce the launch of our groundbreaking Popsa for Web offering that empowers customers to create personalised Photobooks with ease. This innovative platform represents a significant milestone for us as it expands our reach and solidifies our position as a leader in the photobook industry. By embracing the digital landscape and providing our customers with a seamless online experience, we are able to connect with a broader audience, transcending geographical boundaries, and reaching individuals who may have previously been unaware of our brand.

“This new web offering not only enhances accessibility but also strengthens our commitment to delivering exceptional quality and customer satisfaction. It allows us to forge deeper connections with our users, understanding their unique preferences and enabling them to relive their cherished memories in a tangible and visually stunning format. The launch on web signifies a new chapter for Popsa, propelling our brand and business to new heights while continuing to provide an unparalleled Photobook experience.”

You can create a Photobook on our new web app or, as always, in our award-winning mobile app.

The annual FT 1000 report identifies companies that have consistently flourished and expanded over a three year period, this time covering the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Popsa retained its spot on the list for the second-year running, with an absolute growth rate of 1,070%.

This year's FT 1000 proves to be a strong one for the UK overall, with four out of the top five groups in the ranking being UK-based. Fellow London-based Tripledot Studios tops the list, while London remains the city with the largest number of fast-growing companies, with 83 businesses listed.

Find the complete list of Europe’s fastest-growing companies for 2023.

Popsa's CEO and Co-Founder, Liam Houghton, said:

I'm delighted that the FT has once again ranked Popsa amongst the fastest-growing companies in our home continent.

This recognition is a wonderful reward for our intense efforts in continuing to innovate in the midst of an incredibly turbulent period of history. I congratulate the other companies on the list in achieving similar feats.

Our business is now operating on a global scale, and so I want to give a special thanks to our team and all of our partners who kept us going at full speed during the pandemic.

Popsa generates and distributes personalised goods across all of North America, Europe and Oceania, and now has manufacturing and operational presence in Asia and Africa too. User experiences and communications are localised into 12 languages and products are fulfilled from 8 facilities around the world.

In 2022, France was the company's top performing market whilst the United States was by far the fastest-growing both in terms of revenue and new customers.

Popsa's CTO and Co-Founder, Tom Cohen, said;

This ranking reflects just how universal the problem we're solving is; so many people have an innate desire for a healthy form of processing through their photos so that they can build a better sense of self.

I'm so proud that the team at Popsa has risen to this challenge.

Popsa's Chairman, Declan Mellett, added;

We're currently investing a huge amount of time and effort in building the next-generation of our products; an automated experience that harnesses the very latest advances in data-driven technology.

2023 is now the fourth consecutive year Popsa has won an award for its growth, yet we feel that we've only scratched the surface on realising our ambitions.

About the FT 1000

The FT's list of Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies, is a ranking of the top one thousand companies in Europe based on the highest percentage growth in revenues over a three year period.

Each company's financial data was independently processed and verified by global data aggregator, Statista.

2023 marks the seventh year of the FT 1000 report and in-depth analysis will be published in print on 21st March 2023.

Here's an overview of our technology stack and links to some case-studies, for example "how we optimised our API to reduce network overhead by 70% using Protocol Buffers".

Stacks

• Frontend Web

• Backend

• DevOps

• Product Design

• Data Science

• Android

• iOS

Frontend Web

Language, Framework and Tools

• Cypress
• ESLint/Stylelint
• Grommet
• Jest
• Next.JS
• Protobuf
• React.JS
• ReactQuery
• Storybook
• Styled Components
• TensorFlow
• Typescript
• Zustand

3rd Party Services

• BrowserStack
• Chromatic
• Google Tag Manager & Analytics
• Lokalise
• Mixpanel
• PayPal/Braintree
• Percy
• Pusher.JS
• Sentry
• Stripe
• Vercel

Backend

Languages

• Go

AWS Technologies

• Batch
• DynamoDB
• EKS
• Lambda
• S3
• SQS
• Step Functions
• (And many more...)

3rd Party Tools

• Docker
• GitHub Actions
• Grafana
• Jaeger
• Kubernetes
• Loki
• Prometheus
• Protocol Buffers
• Serverless framework
• Stripe
• Terraform

Product Design

Tools

• Figma

Data Science

Languages

• Python
• SQL

Technologies

• Flask
• Jupyter
• Matplotlib
• Numpy
• Pandas
• Scikit-learn
• Scipy
• Tensorflow 2 + tf.keras
• XGBoost

AWS Services

• Athena
• AWS Batch
• EC2
• EC2 Spot
• ECR
• RDS (PostgreSQL)
• S3
• Sagemaker Ground Truth (see how we're reducing the cost of data labelling)

 Infrastructure

• Docker
• GitHub Actions
• Protocol Buffers
• Terraform

Android

 Languages

• Kotlin
• Java (legacy only)

Google Technologies

• Google Vision
• Jetpack Compose
• MLKit
• Architecture components (LiveData, ViewModel)
• Firebase: Messaging, A|B Testing, ML
• Google Pay
• Material Design
• Testing Frameworks: JUnit, MockK, Mockito / DaggerMock
• WorkManager

3rd Party Tools / Dependencies

• Dagger 2
• Exoplayer
• Glide
• okhttp / Retrofit
• OpenCV
• PayPal / Braintree
• Protobuf
• Realm
• RxJava
• Stripe
• Tensorflow Lite
• Unity

iOS

 Languages & Architecture

• Swift
• MVVM + Coordinators

Apple Technologies

• Accelerate
• Apple Pay
• AVKit
• Combine
• Compositional Layouts
• CoreAnimation
• CoreData
• CoreGraphics
• CoreImage
• CoreML
• Diffable DataSource
• Grand Central Dispatch
• Metal
• Operations
• PassKit
• Photos
• Swift Package Manager
• UIKit
• UserNotifications
• Vision
• XCTest
• Xcode Cloud

 3rd Party Tools / Dependencies

• Nuke
• Protocol Buffers
• Pusher
• Stripe
• SwiftLint
• SwiftProtobuf

DevOps

• Bitrise
• Fastlane
• GitHub Actions
• Grafana
• Jaeger
• LINKERD
• Loki
• Mixpanel
• Prometheus
• Sentry

Christmas is a time of reflection; bringing family and friends together around the Christmas tree to remember the moments that made the past year so special. It’s a shared experience unlike any other, forging stories that will be told for generations. Gift giving is just one of those experiences that mean so much to us, building relationships on already solid ground. A gift with greater meaning undoubtedly helps strengthen these bonds.

At Popsa, we believe that one perfect gift is found in the memories, shared experiences, and photos that you already possess. Using the special moments that you’ve captured on your phone or camera, you can create a range of products that instil a sense of love, tradition, and remembrance into your gift. A personalised photo product may be the best gift you give this year.

For all your moments, big and small, there’s no shortage of perfect gifts to give this year.

1. Ornaments

Nothing says Christmas better than a personalised photo Ornament. Containing just one single image, this is an opportunity to remind someone of the moment that made this year so special. With acrylic or glass finishes to choose from and an optional premium gift box to keep the Ornament and memory safe, this is a gift that will last generations.

Returning year after year, every time your recipient retrieves the Ornament to adorn their Christmas tree, they’ll be simultaneously reminded of the one perfect gift and the one perfect moment that the Ornament contains.

This year, our Ornaments are available to create and buy through our app and on our website.

2. Photobooks

For those who have more memories than they know what to do with, Photobooks offer the perfect solution - and present themselves as the perfect gift. Whether you combine photos of the past year or feature only the best shots from a special occasion, a Photobook is a special memento that helps summarise a chapter in our lives.

With a variety of styles, colours, sizes, and formats, Popsa helps you create a personal gift - one that doesn’t just reflect the memories it contains, but also defines the special relationship you share with your recipient.

The choice of a premium Gift Box to present your Photobook also allows you to create an unforgettable unwrapping experience. The calm unclicking of the Gift Box’s magnetic flap echoes before the lid reveals your thoughtful creation. Did you feature your favourite photo on the cover? Or perhaps you may opt for a text-only front page that simply says: “Merry Christmas”. Either way, the message is the same - this is a special gift for a special person.

3. Calendars

Everyone knows that Christmas day is on 25th December. If you know someone who doesn’t know that - first: be concerned - second: consider gifting them a Calendar so they’ll never miss another birthday, occasion, or holiday!

Popsa Calendars put control in your hands, allowing you to choose the photo you want to be featured for each month. With a poster or classic option, there’s space to scribble on your personal events. You can also choose which national, international, or religious days you want to be reminded of. Finally, you can even add the birthdays of your loved ones. Simply tell us your friend or family member’s name, birthday, and your relationship to them, and we’ll print the event in your calendar.

This is a gift that will get 365 days of use, with new photos to enjoy every month when the page is flipped. Who knows what memories will be made this year to put in a calendar for 2024.

4. Photo Tiles

Home decor may not be top of your Christmas list, but it certainly makes for a great gift for any interior enthusiast. There’s a simple motivation behind gifting a collection of Photo Tiles to someone you love. Their benefits certainly give back to the recipient long after the Christmas tree has been taken down. It’s a decoration that will be enjoyed in their homes and loved every time they’re passed.

Choosing what to feature in the Photo Tiles is what makes this gift extra thoughtful. A series of family photos from one special occasion may be the best fit, or a combination of candid shots throughout the years can drive nostalgia home for Christmas.

5. Photo Box

The perfect stocking filler, a Photo Box is a pocketful of memories that condense your pictures into retro-style photos. We’d recommend this as a Secret Santa for a friend - perhaps you could use photos from your latest girls' holiday or the wildest night out with your old schoolmates. At Christmas time, you can even use the prints as gift labels or dinner place settings.

The box itself feels like it was made for gifting, perfectly wrappable, sturdy, and maintaining a level of mystery until every last photo is scanned. What surprise photos would you print?

One perfect gift

Whatever you choose to give your friends, family, and other loved ones this Christmas, we know that your thought and kindness will be appreciated. At Popsa, we believe that it only takes one perfect gift to create the best Christmas yet.

If you’re still struggling to find that gift, you should know that you’ve already done all the hard work - creating memories and taking photos means that you’ve got a gift in your pocket already. Upload your favourite photos and memories, and you’re ready to present a gift with more meaning than words can describe in only five minutes.

Personalisation is part and parcel of the Christmas experience. In fact, 85% of gift buyers say that personalisation is the biggest factor in finding the perfect gift. However, during the festive holiday, the importance of personalisation is heightened even more.

Christmas represents reflection; celebrating the year gone by while looking forward to what the next has in store. Personalised gifts manifest this feeling in a physical way. They become meaningful symbols of remembrance, marking the occasion with past memories that can be treasured well into the future.

Popsa’s Christmas Ornaments have cemented themselves as a festive hallmark. A single image, one perfect moment, finished in glass or acrylic, endowed with a silver ribbon, and loved for a lifetime.

While thousands of customers have enjoyed creating their personalised Ornaments using the Popsa app, our unique tree decorations are now available to create and buy using your browser – a huge step forward for Popsa and our first foray into the world of web.

While creating an Ornament will continue to be a simple and enjoyable process, launching the product online has taken momentous effort from the clever folk at Popsa. While Santa can deliver all his gifts in one night, the journey to this moment has been months in the making.

Last Christmas, I Gave You My Ornament

Popsa’s personalised Christmas Ornaments first launched in 2019. However, last year, more people enjoyed creating an Ornament using our app than ever before. You created hundreds of thousands of Ornaments within just a few weeks at the end of last year. In fact, since they launched, Popsa has helped decorate trees from Alaska to Sydney and even as far as Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean.

What’s been the reaction so far? You’ve loved them! Reviews keep pouring in from those who’ve added their personal touch to the Christmas tree.

We’re hoping Mylissa will be back for another Ornament this year. Last year she said: “I love the glass Christmas Ornaments I ordered from Popsa. They look amazing and they arrived on time. I will certainly be ordering more in the future.”

The ease of use of the app was also celebrated by our customers. Lorraine said: “I wanted to order some Christmas tree ornaments and couldn’t believe how easy the app is to use. Everything is straightforward and each step is clear and concise.”

The straightforward, clear, and concise process of creating the Ornament in the app is something which we’ve aimed to replicate in the web version of the Ornament maker. Everything will still feel very Popsa (and the end product will be the same you know and love) but you’ll now get to enjoy the creative journey from the comfort of your desktop computer or laptop.

Why launch Popsa for Web with Christmas Ornaments?

From Photobooks and Calendars to the Photo Box and Photo Tiles, there’s no shortage of incredible products that Popsa could have launched as their first web product. However, Ornaments represent what makes Popsa’s products so special. Despite containing just one single image, they carry more meaning than words can describe.

Think about the ornaments you have at home. How long have you had them? Some will be years old; some decades old; some may even be older than you. Their sentimental value certainly increases with every year.
Ultimately, your ornaments are part of your personal history and family tradition. They pass through the hands of generations, each decoration with its own story to tell.

It’s why we believe that our Ornaments also make the perfect gift. Our customers use Ornaments to capture an important moment, a special person (or pet), or a treasured memory. Using a photograph that means a lot to you means that as a decoration, you’re scheduling time at the start of every Christmas season to revisit those memories.

Understanding this, it’s important to us to get Ornaments right. Quality and choice are essential to creating these decorations. Crafted from acrylic or glass, the Ornaments are robust, timeless, and made to last Christmas after Christmas.

The additional choice of a Gift Box is the star on top of the tree. The perfect presentation packaging, it turns a memorable present into the best gift of the year. After all, these are the moments that make us. We should do everything we can to make those moments special.

From the web to the tree

Have we mentioned it yet? You can now use your desktop browser to create your Popsa Ornament. Driving (the point) home for Christmas, it means you can now create a customisable decoration containing your favourite photo online, we’ll deliver it to your door, and you can hang it on the tree - or wherever you like.

How to Create a Personalised Ornament?

If you’re familiar with using the Popsa app, you’ll find the experience largely the same. But here’s a rundown of the new online process:

1. Visit the create an Ornament page.
2. Log in with your existing Popsa account - or create a new one.
3. Upload your favourite photo of a memory or someone you want to treasure forever.
4. Personalise your Ornament to your liking. Resize the photograph, add a title, and change colours and fonts.
5. Choose if you want your Ornament in glass or acrylic and if you want to add a premium gift box to make your present extra special.
6. Hit order, set up your tree, and get ready for your personalised Ornament to arrive.

Building Popsa’s First Product For Web

Popsa has been a mobile-first product, with thousands of orders being made at the tap of a finger. On the web, it’s not so much a different experience, just with the click of a mouse instead.

However, migrating Popsa’s much-loved user experiences to the desktop hasn’t come without its challenges. In many ways, building Popsa’s first product for the web carries the same drama of decorating a Christmas tree. Before you enjoy your personalised Ornaments, the tree has to be cut at its roots, wrapped up, and transported to a new setting before being re-erected in a careful balancing act which ends with you wondering why we don't keep a tree in our front room all year round - it just looks so good!

Liam Houghton, CEO of Popsa, explains that this is just the beginning for Popsa as a web platform: “Popsa customers love our Ornaments. Our entry into web apps means that even more people will get to enjoy creating, hanging, and treasuring their decorations.

“As people begin using Popsa on their laptops or desktops, they’ll appreciate the same simplicity and creativity that we’ve built into the Popsa app. They’ll also become familiar with using Popsa online for the first time.

“In future, more Popsa products will begin appearing online, offering people the opportunity to create more quality and memorable print products.”

Peter Harrison, Product Manager at Popsa, commended the development team on their ability to launch the web version in time for the busy Christmas period: “It takes a lot of work to create something that is so simple to use. The user experience is really front and centre with this launch, meaning that creating that perfect gift needn’t take a user more than a few minutes to log in, create, and order.”

A team of a dozen people helped launch the web Ornament maker, a determined expansion of the team since the last festive period. It demonstrates that Popsa regards the digital capabilities of the app and web version as important as the quality of the print products. Together, both the digital and physical products establish why Popsa is the best in class for creating personalised products from your memories.

Peter continued: “Popsa is proving that creating personalised gifts and keepsakes from your memories doesn’t need to be difficult. We’ll continue to build on the foundations of our app and website so that even more people have access to their memories and photos.”

Popsa’s New Year Resolution

Our launch of Ornaments online will not be unique. In 2023 we intend to introduce many more of our personalised print products on popsa.com

But at the top of our Christmas list this season: another year of memories and treasured moments kept for years to come; it's what it's all about.

The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 is one of the UK’s foremost technology awards programmes. Each year they highlight the 50 fastest-growing tech companies in the UK.

Over the past 25 years, the UK Fast 50 has become one of Europe’s leading technology awards programmes.

Popsa is one of a select few companies to have been placed on the list for three successive years, following in the footsteps of Deliveroo.

Deloitte also ranked Popsa as the 19th fastest growing software company in 2022.

Liam Houghton, CEO of Popsa, said, "I’m joining my colleagues in celebrating our continued success and our place in Deloitte’s UK Fast 50 once again in 2022. This achievement is a tribute to the hard work of our team and the unique emotional value that our product has for our customers. To receive this acknowledgement for the third year in a row is rare and it is a testament to the huge effort the entire team has invested so far.

“We believe that the trend towards data-leveraging, automation-first solutions for consumers is only set to continue and grow in the years ahead. Popsa will empower our consumers on this journey with privacy-conscious solutions that help them to process their experiences and build their self-esteem. We'll be releasing significantly improved product offerings along these lines - both in the UK and all around the world - in 2023 and 2024.”

This year has been an exciting year for Popsa, expanding our product availability to new markets, establishing new partnerships and collaborations, and launching our very first web app in time for Christmas.

Declan Mellett, Chairman at Popsa, added: “Continuing this rate of growth for another year is no small feat. It proves the dedication, hard work, and commitment of our people at Popsa and the loyalty of our customers. I’m excited to see this continued trajectory over the next year.”

Do you love your neighbourhood? Popsa has partnered with Nextdoor to launch an exciting photography competition. Find out how to enter the competition and learn our top tips for taking great photos in your neighbourhood.

2022 has been a special year for neighbourhoods and close-knit communities everywhere. It feels like the long chapter of cancelling plans and smaller social gatherings has finally come to an end. This year has been a return to people getting together to celebrate lots of things including Platinum Jubilee parties and Bastille Day bonanzas - hitting the streets with our neighbours to celebrate special moments - big and small!

In our opinion, the best way to record all the memories we’ve made in our communities is by taking a few pictures. Re-living the memories through pictures can fill us with as much joy as experiencing the cream teas and bustling streets first-hand.

Of course, you don’t need a special occasion to take photos of your neighbourhood. It’s perhaps just as important to capture the joy and simplicity of everyday life. After all, your neighbourhood has its own unique identity, quirks and personality.

Excitingly, Popsa has partnered with Nextdoor, the neighbourhood network that connects you to the neighbourhoods that matter to you, for a special photography competition. We want you to capture the beauty of your neighbourhood through your own eyes. Show us why you #LoveYourNeighbourhood for the chance to win over £500 in fantastic prizes courtesy of Popsa and Nextdoor.

The #LoveYourNeighbourhood competition

Popsa and Nextdoor invite you to capture the beauty of your neighbourhood and share a photo of why you #LoveYourNeighbourhood for a chance to win!

To enter the competition, download the Nextdoor app and follow these three simple steps:

1. Take a photo using a phone, digital, or film camera.

Everyone is invited to take a picture that shows why you #LoveYourNeighbourhood. Pro or amateur - it really doesn't matter. This is an opportunity to show off some hidden gems or interesting views of your neighbourhood.

2. Post the photo on Nextdoor using #LoveYourNeighbourhood

Tell us what this photo means to you. Add a short summary that tells the story of your photo and why you love your neighbourhood to your post. The quality of the photo as well as the story will be judged! Set the audience to “anyone” to help your post reach more neighbours. You can download the Nextdoor app here.

3. Share the photo on Nextdoor using #LoveYourNeighbourhood

Share your post with your neighbours, friends, and family to get the most reactions and comments!

Our top tips for taking photos

If you’re reading this, you’ll have an advantage! The #LoveYourNeighbourhood competition will be judged by Popsa Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Nikki Lambert. As CMO at Popsa, Nikki has a keen eye for photos that tell a compelling story.

Nikki has given us her top tips for taking the best photo (and what she’ll be looking out for when judging the competition). Follow these tips, and you may be in with a chance of winning the grand prize!

1. Choose a subject

Whether it’s a person, a pet, or an object, a strong subject can make a photo incredible. How does the subject of your photo represent your neighbourhood so well? When taking your photo, remember to frame your subject - not a literal picture frame. Get creative, and find something in the scene that can naturally frame your focal point.

2. Think about balance

Whether it’s the colours in the photos, the lighting, or how people and things are positioned or spread out; balance is key for great photography. Imagine that your image is split into thirds. You should place your subject within these, rather than in the centre. It breaks the photo into key focal points, meaning it doesn’t appear too full or too empty.

3. Take multiple shots

We may only be judging one photo – but you shouldn’t take just one shot. Small changes in faces and angles can make all the difference. Taking multiple shots means that you can choose the best of a bunch and you’ll have more opportunities to find the perfect picture to submit in the #LoveYourNeighbourhood competition.

Bonus Tip: Caption wisely

Pictures may tell a thousand words, but your caption is an extra opportunity to tell the world what’s so special about the photo you’ve taken. What makes your neighbourhood so special? Is this the spot where stabilisers finally fell off your child’s bike? How did that make you feel? What happened here that makes here so unique?

What should I take photos of in my neighbourhood?

Your neighbourhood is the place to be - there’s no shortage of people or things to take photos of! But if you’re lacking some inspiration for what to take pictures of, here’s some good ideas and prompts:

1. Dogs and animals

Go for a dog walk, meet the local pooches, and see if they’ll stop for a picture.

2. Architecture

Is there a building synonymous with your neighbourhood? Are there some architectural hidden gems or well-known buildings that are instantly recognisable by the whole country?

3. Nature

Capture your natural surroundings. Find the flowers that grow around your neighbourhood - they define the very nature of where you live.

4. Food and restaurants

Foodies rejoice! Find the place where everyone meets for food, a coffee, or goes on their first date. Who knows what big or little moment you might capture. If not, a picture of your favourite local delicacy may win you the competition.

5. Sports and games

Support your local sports team and head down to a game. You’ll be sure to grab some dynamic shots of touchdowns and back-of-the-net victories.

Time to get creative

What are you waiting for? Get out and start taking pictures of your neighbourhood!

If you already have a collection of photos of street parties and culdesac cookouts, you'll also enjoy creating a Photobook, Calendar, or Ornament of this year’s best moments. Remember to download the Popsa app and print memories that you’ll treasure forever.

1. A Confluence In Time

2. Beyond Print

3. Boosting Self-Esteem

4. Distilling An Identity

5. Making Memories Accessible

6. Using Data For Good

7. Building the Platform of Tomorrow

8. From Utility to Destination

9. Evolving Our Brand

10. Making A Difference

A Confluence In Time

Our ancestors have been sharing stories since the dawn of humanity, and although the methods have changed, the subconscious need to pass on our experiences and values hasn’t… we believe it’s more prevalent than ever.

Nowadays, we take photos for all sorts of reasons; to record the best of our lives, to remind ourselves of mundane tasks, and even for communication. In the last decade there has been an explosion of visual media — the only comparable event is the invention of the printing press in 1436.

At the same time we are witnessing a new age of computing, one in which vast amounts of data can be rapidly processed on devices that we hold in our hands.

The convergence of these phenomena; the human instinct to share experiences, the proliferation of photography, and the acceleration of privacy-preserving mobile processing power has given rise to Popsa.

Beyond Print

Our colleagues didn't join Popsa to build a printing app.
That’s just a stage we are passing through.

We’re not creating another Photobox or Shutterfly. Our ambitions go far beyond that.

For us, the printing of memories is just one manifestation of a more fundamental human need; our innate desire to understand who we are.

That’s not to say we will intend to dilute the business we have built on printing photos, in fact quite the opposite, we believe that building a better service for these customers will also lead us into building something increasingly valuable to those who don’t have any intention to print at all.

Why do we believe this?
Our customers don't print because they love flicking through pages or because they admire the quality of our binding. When we talk to them it very quickly becomes clear that there are much more subtle – and often subconscious – reasons for printing.

People choose to reminisce in this way to be a better parent, to impress their neighbours, to leave a legacy, to strengthen a relationship, or to come to terms with loss – amongst other things.

All of this sounds quite deep at first, but when you stop and think about it, curating the best of your experiences and relationships is a perfectly rational way of processing your life. Furthermore, the act of crystallising all this into something tangible can serve as a constant reminder of the things that make life worth living.

Boosting Self-Esteem

What is the evolutionary reason for instinctively wanting to record and relive?

Memory – in general – is obviously essential for survival.
But perhaps even more so is an understanding of the events in those memories.

Humans have evolved to reminisce primarily as a way of increasing our understanding of the world around us. And the more we understand things, the more we can improve our chances of success and happiness within that world.

We can make ourselves better people – and lead more satisfying lives – by self-reflection.

However, it is important to recognise that bringing up memories of past events is not automatically a good thing. In fact, there are different types of reminiscence and some are more healthy than others.

‘Obsessive’ reminiscence (characterised by always looking at the past in its most negative light, through the prism of mistakes and missed opportunities), and ‘escapist’ reminiscence (a view of the past that is so positive that we long to go back because our world today is so awful) are extremes on a spectrum.

Both of these can be damaging, but there are other ways of reminiscing that are in fact critical in supporting our mental health.

Popsa exists to increasingly help our users process their thoughts through:

• Transmissive Reminiscence  
  Best summed up as the passing on of values to your children (this is partly why we feel guilty if we stop recording their childhoods). Traditions in this way can be a good tool for propagating personal beliefs and even culture.
• Instrumental Reminiscence  
  Turning unfortunate situations around and making the most of them for self-improvement. This helps build confidence in yourself; a sense that you can achieve anything when you put your mind to it. Reliving our happiest moments reinforces this.
• Integrative Reminiscence  
  Derived from ‘integrity’ in the sense of being whole or well-rounded, this kind of processing of your own thoughts and memories helps you feel calm, assured, and content with life.

All of this processing helps us in the realisation that ups and downs are all part of life’s great story. They are not just random events the world throws at us; we can extract value from negative situations, whilst celebrating the amazing things we do and the wonderful people we come across.

Distilling An Identity

It’s clear that just remembering doesn’t necessarily confer benefits. Quality reminiscing involves some kind of effort at evaluation and the extraction of meaning.

It is worth considering, however, that not everyone can access this ability; or at least, not to the same degree.

Our mission at Popsa is to help these people find meaning in their lives.

In a way, people who already make lots of photo albums are already very good at this.
But most people struggle to access the most healthy kind of reminiscing because there is so much life to sift through, or they feel ill-equipped to create something from all the content they’ve accumulated.

There is a wonderful, natural process that is an interesting parallel to what we’re doing at Popsa.

The human mind is so large and inquisitive – it takes in much more data than it can possibly store – and so it has mechanisms to make sense of it all.

We refer to this mechanism as dreaming.

When we dream, we process short term memories and work out what is important to keep for the long term.

It’s a kind of defragmentation of the mind.

We believe that Popsa can be to a photo library (or people’s digital lives) what dreaming is to the mind.

Not only by sifting through vast amounts of raw data to pick out the important things, but to then analyse what remains and process them into something meaningful, something beautiful, something that can be experienced again and again to feel content and satisfied.

Taken together, we describe this process as helping people to distil their identity. After all, the meaningful events, experiences and relationships in your life are what makes you, you.

And when people are confident in themselves and their identity, they typically lead
more fulfilling lives.

Making Memories Accessible

Given how beneficial such activities can be for mental wellbeing, we believe it is critical to make them accessible for as many people as possible.

A typical response from companies in our sector is to give their users a myriad of options from which they can self-serve.

We believe this approach to be not only ineffective, but discriminatory.
It’s a strategy that is biassed towards people who already have a strong desire to reminisce, whatever stands in their way.

Despite having no shortage of photos, people who are less self-assured face a range of barriers:

• Anxiety About Technology  
  I don’t want to touch that button in case I mess it up
• Anxiety About Design Skills  
  I’m embarrassed to show what I’ve made to people I respect
• Lack of Time  
  I don’t have the patience to do all of that
• Lack of Imagination  
  I’m not sure what I should create
• Preconceptions  
  That sounds complicated

Therefore Popsa is harnessing technology to make the whole process much more accessible.

What you see in today’s app is nothing compared to where we’re going.

We are now focussing our efforts on three objectives, and it’s the combined results that we believe will help people overcome these barriers.

Not only does this approach provide the most value for our customers, it’s commercially savvy too. As we innovate to remove these barriers, Popsa will be able to serve wider audiences and increasing numbers of people who would otherwise be put off today.

Using Data For Good

Popsa is a data company, not a printing company.

We wholeheartedly believe that data can be used for good, to boost people’s self-esteem.

And we also believe that an intelligent and sensitive use of this data can give us a competitive advantage in delivering value that customers will pay for.

This is a win-win relationship for everyone involved.

There’s an important difference between Popsa and other companies known for their use of data, and it’s that Popsa’s interests are directly aligned to our customers’ interests.

Unlike the Silicon Valley giants, we don’t need to profile user data for use in advertising. We only generate revenue if a customer purchases our products.

As such we only use data provided by our customers for their benefit, by generating incredible artefacts that help them express themselves and reflect their identity.

For us, data is directly linked to accessibility. It’s the key ingredient by which we can empower our customers.

Building the Platform of Tomorrow

Popsa seeks to add new kinds of value for our customers, not just convert the grid of photos on your phone to another one in a book.

We believe that the value of data can be magnified through the lens of design to create a result that is so much more than the sum of its parts.

What does this mean in practice?

We’re working on an ambitious plan to turn today’s app into a far more sophisticated platform for storytelling.

So, in the future, instead of selecting a product and then some photos, we’re going to resurface the most significant events in your life for you.

We’re building an intelligence layer that sits on top of the photo library (for those who opt in) which learns what is sentimental to you and helps you identify special moments you might want to keep.

This involves a suite of machine learning, procedural and heuristic algorithms, all with a bias towards keeping the data on your device to ensure high privacy and low latency.

To make sense of it all, we’re developing an ‘experience graph’ which preserves relationships between these data points so that machines can best interpret significance from background noise.

Once we’ve put together these collections (ranging from the barbeque you had at the weekend and the night out with your mates, to your best bits with mum for Mother’s Day or your child’s first year) we need to do something useful with them.

To be more than the sum of the constituent photos, we need to add something extra. That something is narrative.

We’re working on the next-generation of our physical products. Where today there are simple collages, tomorrow there will be richer, modernist designs that make use of typography and are embellished with chapter cards, bibliographies, maps, life milestones and graphical annotations that aid the storytelling process and elevate the surrounding photos.

We’ll be going from a relatively basic slideshow to something more like a journal or magazine.

And not only that; our intention is to fully automate the creation of these narratives so that our customers have the time to focus on the finishing touches and add emotional content; the in-joke on your holiday, the joy you felt when your daughter was born, or the advice your dad gave you before he became unwell.

The net result is a platform that can take raw data, detect context, and then output something that is appropriate, beautiful and engaging; a platform that can help people tell the story of their lives, no matter their skills or background. That’s our goal.

From Utility to Destination

Whilst Popsa started as a great tool for making physical products, our ambition is to become a destination in our own right.

This includes being a place that is interesting and useful for individuals who might never purchase a product themselves. Attracting those people can be beneficial to others and for the platform as a whole.

For example, some people might want to enjoy the digital version of the narratives we generate or want to use our technology to tidy up their photo library, and others might want to store their photos where they’re not analysed for advertising. All of these use cases can help train our models to improve the results for everyone else.

Another ambition is to facilitate other companies in building apps on top of Popsa so that (with user consent) their services can access our experience graph and use that value to deliver more value for the user outside of Popsa.

There is a behaviour that our customers already exhibit today that we are aiming to make easier for them; a desire for collaboration.

Many people use WhatsApp to work together on their Popsa designs. This is a painful experience and results in lots of compressed photos sent one way and screenshots of layouts going the other.

So we’re going to solve this problem and bring real-time collaboration to our sector for the very first time. Think a consumer version of Miro or Figma.

Embracing such network effects will help make Popsa self-perpetuating.

Our photos contain snapshots of our social lives, and our physical products are typically enjoyed together, sparking laughter and conversation. So why should the creation process in-between be a solo one?

Achieving this goal means we’ll be able to close the loop of social interactions and maintain that engagement throughout. That’s ultimately when Popsa stops being a utility and becomes a destination for friends and family to meet.

Evolving Our Brand

Our sector is far too commoditised; common supermarket products would not look out of place on the websites of our competitors.

Today’s Popsa is not radically different but our product roadmap will see us rapidly diverge. Instead of asking our customers to choose a container to then fill with photos, we’ll start with your meaningful content and offer appropriate suggestions for what to make of it. We’ll go from a passive model to a push model.

We plan to dramatically reposition our brand to reflect this approach.

Starting this year, we will undertake an in-depth study of who our customers are and how we can best represent their lives. We will develop a new set of values and principles that everyone who works at Popsa can subscribe to, and which will guide us as we build a platform for storytelling.

A new tone of voice and visual identity will encapsulate and express our world view, rooting us firmly in a new paradigm.

This will give us a launchpad from which to drive mass-market awareness in our core markets of the US, UK, Germany and France. We’ll also start a brand partnerships team, develop a transactional web offering from first principles, and deploy a modern content strategy to support organic discovery and SEO.

Making A Difference

In an increasingly digital world, we're in danger of losing those special moments when family and friends used to gather around the photo album, sparking memories and debate.

Whether it’s supporting mental health or just bringing a smile to someone’s face, we’re proud to be building something that will make millions of people around the world… happy. 🙂

It's definitely something worthwhile to contribute to society.

Join Us

If you want to come with us on this journey become a member of the Popsa team.

If you're one of our customers, get in touch, your feedback helps us build an even better experience for you. We'd love to hear from you.

Back To Jobs Board  

1. From Nothing to Something Meaningful

2. Accessible From Anywhere

3. A Diverse Team

4. Experienced Founders

5. Strong Financial Backing

6. Customer-Focussed Principles

7. A Sense of Purpose

From Nothing to Something Meaningful

Popsa sells personalised products to millions of people every year. We’ve gone from generating $100k in revenue in our first twelve months to more than $40m a year.

On average every customer purchases at least twice, and many of our customers have ordered hundreds of times.

We’ve also gone from 3 team members to more than 60, with plans to double that again within the next 18 months.

According to an independent report by Deloitte, Popsa was the fastest growing Software company in the UK in 2020, and we were the only company to remain in the Top 10 fast growing startups in 2021.

In 2022, The Financial Times ranked Popsa in the Top 20 fastest growing companies - of any kind - in the whole of Europe.

But it hasn't been an easy ride. Popsa’s success is built on raw talent, attention to detail, and perseverance.

We are inventors. We create something where there was once nothing. Sometimes we fail, but we always get back up again. Our work can be intense but it is also incredibly rewarding.

But the best part is that – together – our hard work is empowering our customers to spread happiness through the reliving of the meaningful stories in their lives. That’s definitely something worth getting out of bed for!

Accessible From Anywhere

The first step in empowering people is to build a service that is accessible, no matter your skills or where you come from.

We apply this philosophy on a global scale through our logistics network.

Almost everything we do – from our mobile apps to all of our comms and customer support – is available in 12 languages.

We ship to more than 50 countries, with more than 85% of orders being placed from outside of the UK.

Germany and France are our main markets, but we’re also able to serve customers in Scandinavia, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Poland – all in their native languages.

Outside of Europe, the United States is one of our fastest growing markets, followed by Australia and Canada, where we launched in 2020 and 2021 respectively.

We manufacture our products at eight facilities around the world:

• Toronto, Canada
• Seattle, United States
• Salt Lake City, United States
• Washington D.C., United States
• Prague, Czechia
• Eindhoven, Netherlands
• Exeter, United Kingdom
• Melbourne, Australia

We also create our own physical IP such as packaging and gift boxes – all of which are designed in London and manufactured in two locations in China; Dongguan and Ningbo.

But our approach goes far beyond translations and distribution; our features must also take account of our international-first policy from their inception.

For example, customers can select public holidays to be included in their personalised Calendars. This is simple if you’re serving one country; Shutterfly has Thanksgiving and Presidents Day, but if you live in France or Australia this is alienating, you would expect Bastille Day or Anzac Day instead. Furthermore Mother’s Day in the UK is not on the same date as Mother’s Day in America.

So we invented a system that pulls in public holiday information from the internet for more than 200 countries around the world. This means that our customers always see public holidays that are appropriate for them.

We also localise the name of the holiday into multiple languages. This means that you can make a gift for someone abroad and everything will be localised for them at the tap of a button.

This attention to detail is not only a source of great pride, but is one of the reasons our customers love using Popsa.

A Diverse Team

The Popsa team is as international as our audience; we’re proud to welcome team members from as far as Russia, Canada and Brazil, in addition to host of nations from across Europe.

We are nearing an even gender distribution across the entire team and more than 10% are openly LGBT. If you have a minority background you should expect to feel at home here.

Occasionally, we’ll work with agencies on a particular objective – a good example is our upcoming rebrand – but mostly we like to build things in-house. It’s the best way for us to learn from one another.

At the moment everyone works from the UK, but plans are underway to open more offices in our core markets (such as the US).

The founders aren't afraid to get stuck in either. More often than not they're just a few desks away and can often be found working on solutions with designers and engineers. If they're not already in one of your interviews, do feel free to request a chat before making a decision to join Popsa.

In terms of expertise, the team is roughly composed of three functional groups: Marketing, Product & Engineering, and Customer Service & Operations.

Within that we employ strategists, creatives, media buyers, product designers, product managers, backend engineers, frontend engineers, data scientists, analysts, and customer success agents.

Most of the team now work cross-functionally, bringing individual roles together with joint responsibility for achieving specific objectives.

As we grow we’re planning to add more cross-functional teams so we can deliver our extensive roadmap increasingly in parallel. This way of working gives team members an opportunity to specialise in particular areas and work on more ambitious projects not constrained by two-week sprints, but also the ability to occasionally move between teams to ensure they get to work on a variety of challenges.

Experienced Founders

Popsa was founded by CEO, Liam Houghton, and CTO, Tom Cohen.

Liam started creating eCommerce apps as a teenager and graduated with a First in Architecture before becoming a product designer. Meanwhile Tom qualified as a Computer Scientist, worked for a time on software for maritime software at BAE Systems, and went on to win the UK Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Before Popsa, the pair worked together for many years; at first building consumer apps for large brands but then going on to develop an incubator programme designed to kickstart new businesses from scratch.

In 2016, they made the decision to focus entirely on the idea that became Popsa, re-investing more than a decade of experience of building consumer products to accelerate a product idea into a global business.

The founders have since been joined by Chairman and Commercial Director, Declan Mellett, a pioneer of digital consumer print and logistics in Europe; Chief Marketing Officer and Nikki Lambert, former marketing executive at Virgin and then Spotify.

Strong Financial Backing

Popsa has a strong track record of fundraising to support our mission and we’re backed by several of the best investors in Europe.

Popsa’s seed round was led by Silicon Valley accelerator, 500 Startups, followed by a sizeable investment from The Garage Soho.

Our three largest supporters have all invested in Popsa several times since 2018; Pembroke VCT, Guinness Global Investments, and Octopus Investments.

And we welcomed our newest investor, Gresham House Ventures, in 2022 as part of a $12m round.

The money we raise is mainly spent on R&D and the expansion of our team. The more talent in the team, the more we all learn from each other, and the fact that we spend most of our budget on R&D means that we get to work on some really existing things, delivering value for our customers in ways that our category has never seen.

Customer-Focussed Principles

Companies only thrive when they serve their customers first and foremost, and so that was our single-minded objective from the day we launched.

We’ve always had ambitions to go far beyond printed products, but we started by setting up all the necessary infrastructure required for eCommerce (our backend stack is entirely custom) and then tackling one of the biggest pain points for consumers; creating a photobook design given a selection of photos.

Speed

When Popsa first launched, our heuristic algorithms generated photobook layouts in 20 seconds. This wasn’t yet solving our customer problems, but we doubled down on it and within months we had this down to just 2 seconds (suitable for marketing to the public), and by the end of the first year we had it down to a lightning-fast 0.4 seconds – and it all works offline for optimal privacy.

Select some photos and your book is designed in a blink of an eye. The core of this algorithm is still in place today but we’ve augmented it with lots of extra technology including ‘saliency detection’ – recognising the focus of the image in order to crop it correctly – and custom logic to work out the most significant photo to showcase on the front cover, amongst other things.

Ease of Use

We’ve worked hard to make our editing tools the most intuitive on the market. The objective is always to ensure that transformative actions can be completed within a tap or two.

Simple is hard. We have invested considerable efforts into making actions fluid and seamless to make complex decisions effortlessly melt away.

The most pertinent example is what happens when you drag to drop. Users can literally see an image transform from one location to another, and the background analysis for facial detection, saliency, and cropping is not even perceptible. The result means our customers have to make fewer changes along the way, and this allows them to focus on the finishing touches – turning what was previously a chore into a joy.

Peace of Mind

It's not just pure speed that matters. We've also been developing a range of tools that help guide our customers through the order process whilst minimising perfectly rational concerns.

For example, we introduced interactive 3D models so that you can see how your design will look when printed and this increased order volume by 5% virtually overnight. The detail in the animations is something never attempted before in our sector. For a company that makes products to order, visualising what you’re going to receive is really important – it gives our users peace of mind.

And we've made sure from day one that we always save your work, so that you can come back and finish it another day, or re-print your favourite product in a year's time.

As time has gone on we’ve introduced more sophisticated features all whilst maintaining those core principles.

The introduction of our range of Calendars contains many examples of us transferring complexity from our customers to ourselves. The result was a conversion rate to purchase of more than 50% in the weeks after its release – pretty much unprecedented.

A Sense of Purpose

When you’ve spent years creating digital products it becomes very apparent that technology people are building today will become obsolete and will be replaced many times over, but the wonderful thing about Popsa is that we’re already leaving a legacy that will last so much longer.

It’s a poignant thought that every year millions of Popsa artefacts are stored or given as gifts and it’s likely that many thousands of our products will end up outliving us all; passed down to people’s children and grandchildren, part of many families' records for years to come.

There’s a reason why so many people say ‘photos’ when asked what they would save if their house was on fire. Our photos symbolise our values; the special relationships and the shared experiences in our lives.

It’s a real privilege to be able to help people tell their stories and relive their memories, all of the things that make life worth living.

And finally

Aside from the primary ambition of realising our vision for customers, the common goal of everyone at Popsa is to learn.

The greatest opportunity in being part of a fast-growing startup is the exposure we all get to problem solving on a fundamental level.

At heart, we are all inventors, creating something from nothing. We tackle challenges head on specifically because they are hard.

It is intense; there is no ‘department’ to pass problems onto and nowhere to hide away, we’re all in it together; we succeed and we fail together too. In fact, it is in our failures that we can find the most value, and those experiences can never be taken away – we’ll have them for the rest of our lives.

Our Vision  

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Finnish company, Swappie, topped this list, whilst Popsa was ranked alongside fellow UK companies, OnlyFans, Thriva and Tide, growing by more than 4000% over three years.

Click here to see the full list of Europe’s fastest-growing companies.

Popsa's CEO and Co-Founder, Liam Houghton, said:

We're delighted to enter the FT 1000 for the first time. Being ranked in the Top 20 is a testament to the hard work and perseverance of everyone at Popsa over the last few years.

This recognition is particularly special for us all because we've made huge efforts to localise everything we do for customers right across the European continent.

We're incredibly proud to be building such a global business and so I'd like give a shout out to all of our partners around the world who help us manufacture and deliver millions of orders every year.

Despite being based in the United Kingdom, more than 85% of Popsa's sales are generated abroad, with the largest number of customers coming from France, Germany and the U.S. in 2021.

Popsa's CTO and Co-Founder, Tom Cohen, said;

Our mission is to increase people’s wellbeing by using data for good, wherever you are in the world.

Being recognised as a high-growth company reflects the continued positive effect our product has on our users’ lives. Without them, none of this would be possible.

Popsa's Chairman, Declan Mellett, added;

This award is a fantastic boost as we continue to expand the team. We're working on some really exciting projects at the moment; creating things that our category has never seen before. We can't wait to reveal all over the next 18 months.

About the FT 1000

The FT's list of Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies, is a ranking of the top one thousand companies in Europe based on the highest percentage growth in revenues over a three year period.

Each company's financial data was independently processed and verified by global data aggregator, Statista.

2022 marks the sixth year of the FT 1000 report and in-depth analysis will be published in print on 21st March.

Gresham House Ventures Investment Director, Tom Makey, also joins the Popsa board.

The new fundraise - agreed mid 2021 - doubles the all-time capital investment into one of the UK’s fastest growing startups.

Liam Houghton, CEO and Co-Founder of Popsa, says:

We are very pleased to welcome Tom Makey and Gresham House Ventures into the Popsa family.

This round will help fund an ambitious roadmap designed to differentiate our offering in the market and return that value to our customers through intelligent curation and editorial suggestions.

It is also encouraging to have the continued support of our current investors - Pembroke, Octopus and Guinness who have already invested several times. This confidence is a real testament to the work we are doing here at Popsa.

Popsa's CTO and Co-Founder, Tom Cohen, says:

We will be accelerating our data science initiatives – harnessing technology – to make the curation of your experiences accessible to a wider audience, irrespective of your technical abilities or eye for design.

We believe that celebrating the things that make life worth living is an important factor in mental wellbeing, so it's critical that we can support our customers in creating artefacts that represent them faithfully and that they can be proud of. It's in this manner that we believe data can be used for good.

Popsa was founded by Tom Cohen (left) and Liam Houghton (right) in March 2016.

Declan Mellett, Chairman, adds:

The Gresham House Ventures team’s focus on personalisation within e-commerce makes them a natural fit for us.

This investment will help us expand Popsa’s presence internationally and deepen our understanding of the wealth of data in photos.

Popsa, who recently placed in the top ten of Deloitte's UK Fast 50 two years’ running, will use the investment to bolster efforts in advancing features and product development, as well as sales and marketing, supporting the business’ aim of scaling the brand in its key geographies (US, Germany, France and UK).

Let’s be honest, you’ve not got round to printing your photos. At Popsa, we believe that printing your photos is the best way to cherish and share them, time and time again. Our new Photo Boxes offer a truly fun and sociable way to share with friends and family.

Nestled in a premium presentation case, our Photo Boxes can be filled with up to 34 of your favourite moments. Each photo is bordered with that vintage instant camera frame we all know and love and printed individually on thick paper. This makes them ideal for bringing out when guests are around - from dinner parties to family gatherings - and taking a trip down memory lane, indulging in your favourite moments.

Great for sharing wedding and first birthday pictures, our photo boxes are also inspiring if you’re feeling inventive. Why not surprise your closest friends with a Photo Box filled with shots from the group trip you took years ago? Next time they’re round for dinner, with a different photo in everyone’s hands, old (and embarrassing) memories are sure to surface. You could even invent a game out of your prints, with your guests attempting to place each snap in chronological order – the winner could take home their favourite print.

This Christmas, surprise extended family with a Photo Box dedicated to festive seasons past. Get the kids to guess which year each picture was taken – a bad perm or a pair of low-rise jeans might help them guess the decade, or just reflect on how much they’ve grown since their first snow day.

When you’re done, shuffle all those memories and pop them back in their magnetic-closure box for when you’re next feeling playful. They’ll be kept safe to surprise you year after year.

Make your Photo Boxes today - head to the Popsa app now and select the best snaps to fill your box – it only takes five minutes.

From personalised photobooks and photo tiles, to calendars and ornaments, gifts don’t get more thoughtful than Popsa. Sharing memories with friends and loved ones is always a joy. And now, thanks to our gorgeous new gift boxes, you can make the moment feel even more special.

We worked hard to make sure every aspect of the new gift boxes had its own little wow moment. After months of testing, prototyping and sourcing (not to mention a lot of abandoned designs that just weren’t fancy enough), we ended up with something truly special.

From the very first touch, our new gift boxes feel super premium. Each box was designed around a big reveal moment, with high-quality materials, magnetic clasps, and presentation paper all adding to the wow factor.

Our new gift boxes are shipping now – simply select the gift box option at checkout in the Popsa app. They’re the perfect way to make a great gift feel even more special.

Create beautiful, personal photobooks in just 5 minutes with Popsa’s seriously clever ‘printAI’ software. Our app takes the hassle out of printing your photos – simply select your favourite memories (from your phone or social media accounts), and we’ll take care of the rest. Instant layouts, perfect crops, and unbeatable print quality; there’s a reason Popsa is rated ‘Excellent’ on Trustpilot, and trusted by millions of customers every year.

Ready to get started? Simply head to the App Store to download the free Popsa app. Once you’ve created your first photobook (which really will take under 5 minutes!) you can even preview it in 3D, right from your phone, for added peace of mind.