Snapfish

Snapfish

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Photo sharing and printing services
Founded	1999 (1999)
Founder	Rajil Kapoor, Bala Parthasarathy, Suneet Wadhwa, Shripati Acharya
Headquarters	San Jose , United States
Owner	Shutterfly

Snapfish is an online platform specializing in photo sharing and printing services, currently owned by Shutterfly and headquartered in San Jose, California. The company was established in 1999 by founders Rajil Kapoor, Bala Parthasarathy, Suneet Wadhwa, and Shripati Acharya.

History

Founded in 1999 by Rajil Kapoor, Bala Parthasarathy, Suneet Wadhwa, and Shripati Acharya, Snapfish soon welcomed Ben Nelson who initially led corporate development operations and later took on roles as CFO, president, and CEO.

On October 30, 2001, the digital imaging firm District Photo acquired Snapfish for an undisclosed sum.

In 2004, Snapfish experimented with a brick-and-mortar retail location in Alexandria, Virginia, which was eventually closed.

The following year, in 2005, while under Nelson’s leadership as CEO and despite generating less than $100 million in revenue, Snapfish was purchased by Hewlett-Packard for $300 million. Nelson remained at the helm as Snapfish operated as a subsidiary of HP. During this timeframe, Snapfish formed partnerships with prominent retailers such as Walgreens, Costco, and Walmart.

By August 2013, Snapfish discontinued its services in Belgium, India, the Netherlands, and Spain. In April 2015, HP divested Snapfish back to District Photo but maintained an agreement allowing continued access to HP’s printing infrastructure.

A website transition in 2016 resulted in considerable data loss; images uploaded before January 2014 were not fully retrievable.

Jasbir Patel took over as president and CEO in January 2017. On September 28, 2018, Snapfish revealed its acquisition of CafePress for more than $25 million, with the transaction completing on November 9, 2018.

On June 10, 2019, Apollo Global Management announced the purchase of both Snapfish and competitor Shutterfly in transactions valued at approximately $3 billion. These companies were consolidated into one entity while District Photo retained a minority interest. The merger finalized on January 8, 2020.

It was declared on May 4, 2020, that Snapfish would discontinue providing the platform for Boots Photo across the UK and Ireland starting May 13. Later that year, on September 1, PlanetArt acquired CafePress from the combined Snapfish/Shutterfly group.

See also

• Snapfish Lab, an initiative under HP Labs