RPI Raises $5M More from Riverlake Partners, Huntington Capital

Tukwila, WA-based digital-to-physical media company RPI has raised an additional $5 million financing round led by Portland, OR-based Riverlake Partners, with participation from its previous investor, San Diego-based Huntington Capital, the company said today.

RPI has quite an interesting story. One of the few veteran mid-sized companies left in the Seattle area, RPI has been profitable since 1979. How’d they do it? By making actual physical stuff for their customers. In an age when digital media is reigning supreme, RPI has found a niche printing things—like photo books, greeting cards, invitations, calendars, notebooks, posters, and other custom-designed products—for people who want to preserve their digitally-captured memories in a tangible, tactile way.

This second round of financing comes just four months after RPI raised its first major funding round—a $5 million financing led by Huntington. The company says it will use the additional funds to “accelerate its strategic growth plan,” enabling the company to solidify its position in the growing consumer personalized product space. As part of the deal, RiverlakeĀ  representative Victor Petroff has been appointed RPI’s chairman of the board.

“RPI has successfully reinvented itself by focusing exclusively on the personalized make-on-demand printed products market, and we believe this important differentiator sets it apart from other manufacturing and fulfillment companies,” Petroff said in a statement. “RPI already partners with top-tier retailers representing more than 40 percent of the total U.S. market for photo products.”


Author: Thea Chard

Before joining Xconomy, Thea spent a year working as the editor of another startup, the hyperlocal Seattle neighborhood news site QueenAnneView.com. She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California, where she double-majored in print journalism and creative writing. While in college, Thea spent a semester studying in London and writing for the London bureau of the Los Angeles Times. Indulging in her passion for feature writing, she has covered a variety of topics ranging from the arts, to media, clean technology and breaking news. Before moving back to Seattle, Thea worked in new media development on two business radio shows, "Marketplace" and "Marketplace Money" by American Public Media. Her clips have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Santa Monica Daily Press, Seattle magazine and her college paper, the Daily Trojan. Thea is a native Seattleite who grew up in Magnolia, and now lives in Queen Anne.