Welcome to Imgix
Your images matter … a lot more than you think.
Imgix by the Numbers
Our Mission
We enhance the way the world experiences the web, empowering our customers to create and deliver exceptional visual content through advanced image processing. Marketers, developers, and creators rely on Imgix to effortlessly optimize, transform, and deliver visuals across digital platforms and devices.
Innovation
We are at the intersection of computer graphics and the internet, pioneering solutions to optimize and enhance visual content. Driven by roots in both art and technology, we constantly push boundaries, redefining what image processing can achieve.
Creativity
We celebrate and nurture creativity, empowering businesses and creators to craft visually stunning, emotionally resonant content. Our powerful, intuitive tools inspire innovation and bring bold ideas to life across digital landscapes.
Performance
We are committed to high performance, ensuring every image on our platform is optimized for quality, speed, and impact. Our dedication to the science of imagery delivers results that exceed expectations, fostering trust and long-term partnerships.
Our Story
We are a rag tag band of creatives, craftsmen, and technologists who are fascinated by the intersection of computer graphics and the Internet. We help the world see the web better through image optimization. We have a passion for great images and video, we proactively think about what our customers need, we care about the details and pride ourselves on craftsmanship, and we provide world class customer support/service.
And we have a cool origin story …
Chris Zacharias had been at YouTube since the early days. In fact, he was their second full-time web developer, and he created the video player, the file uploader, and many more of the tools that we all still use today. It was at that time that Chris observed that the video thumbnail images were significantly heavier than they needed to be, and he started looking for ways to optimize them in order to deliver a better user experience and make YouTube accessible to people with slow connections.
After leaving YouTube, Chris continued his quest to optimize images and built the foundation of what would become Imgix. Initially, he worked with the guys from Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer) to create a website for an album release. After adding a few more customers, Imgix secured seed funding from Y Combinator and SV Angel in 2011 and from there, started to grow in earnest.
2014 saw Imgix opening our office in San Francisco and raising our series A funding with RRE Ventures. Since then, Imgix has built out an international team with employees across the United States, Canada, Germany and Japan—all focused on making the entire internet smarter, faster, and more captivating for customers like Porsche, Unsplash, YETI, and Nikkei. In 2023, we added AI capabilities to our editing functions, enabling customers to upscale images, remove and replace backgrounds, use generative fill on images, remove objects from images, and automatically create alt-text and image tags. This continued innovation has allowed Imgix to go from strength to strength, and we now serve over 8 billion images each day for more than 60,000 happy customers.
And we have a cool origin story …
Chris Zacharias had been at YouTube since the early days. In fact, he was their second full-time web developer, and he created the video player, the file uploader, and many more of the tools that we all still use today. It was at that time that Chris observed that the video thumbnail images were significantly heavier than they needed to be, and he started looking for ways to optimize them in order to deliver a better user experience and make YouTube accessible to people with slow connections.
After leaving YouTube, Chris continued his quest to optimize images and built the foundation of what would become Imgix. Initially, he worked with the guys from Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer) to create a website for an album release. After adding a few more customers, Imgix secured seed funding from Y Combinator and SV Angel in 2011 and from there, started to grow in earnest.
2014 saw Imgix opening our office in San Francisco and raising our series A funding with RRE Ventures. Since then, Imgix has built out an international team with employees across the United States, Canada, Germany and Japan—all focused on making the entire internet smarter, faster, and more captivating for customers like Porsche, Unsplash, YETI, and Nikkei. In 2023, we added AI capabilities to our editing functions, enabling customers to upscale images, remove and replace backgrounds, use generative fill on images, remove objects from images, and automatically create alt-text and image tags. This continued innovation has allowed Imgix to go from strength to strength, and we now serve over 8 billion images each day for more than 60,000 happy customers.
Meet the Team
Chris Zacharias
founder & ceo
Chris began working in startups at age 16 to pay his way through school. After graduating from RIT with a degree in New Media, Chris joined Xerox as a software engineer. In 2007, Chris moved to the Bay Area to join YouTube as its second full-time web developer. Seeking the opportunity to build his own startup, he left YouTube in 2010 to start Imgix out of his living room.
John Pichay
VP OF PEOPLE
John is an HR professional with over 10 years of experience mostly in the tech industry. He holds a BA degree in Human Resources Management from Golden Gate University and has graduated with Cum Laude honors. In his current role, John is responsible for leading Imgix's overall human resources strategy and operations, global talent acquisition, L&D, DEI, org design, total rewards, employee relations, and office management.
Craig McDonogh
HEAD OF MARKETING
Craig is an accomplished marketing executive with more than 30 years experience in all aspects of B2B software marketing. His background spans US, APAC, and European markets in companies including ServiceNow, BMC, and Perspectium. Craig is recognized as a SaaS marketing leader and has been a featured speaker at events around the world.
David Dioli
CFO
David has more than 30 years in financial leadership, capital markets, risk management, sales, and corporate strategy. With a proven track record in strategic planning, closing business deals, and managing relationships, David founded a successful financial consulting firm and authored 'Never Startup Alone' - which has been praised for its practical advice on entrepreneurship.
Alfonso Acosta
HEAD OF engineering
Alfonso is a seasoned software engineer with over 25 years of experience building scalable systems across a range of industries. He graduated Cum Laude from Rice University with a degree in Computer Engineering. His first job out of college was in software development and he has never looked back. Imgix marks Alfonso’s third venture into the startup world, where he brings a pragmatic approach to problem-solving and a deep passion for clean, efficient code to the Head of Engineering role.
Gunthar Hartwig
HEAD OF product
Gunthar is an accomplished seasoned product leader with 20 years experience developing software for US and global markets. He has held leadership positions at innovative organizations building solutions in reality capture and analysis, video authoring, financial technology, health and wellness, and more. At Imgix, he brings his passion for media and imaging to bear in developing the next generation of media creation, management, and distribution tools.
Kunal Shah
chief of staff
Kunal, an internet entrepreneur with two decades of experience, leads strategy and product/engineering. He was previously CPO at Mynd, led product at Amino and Zillow, and co-founded RentJuice (CTO until acquired by Zillow). He started his career building consumer sites like CollegeHumor and Vimeo. Kunal combines software expertise with a record of accelerating growth at startups and public tech companies. He holds a B.S. in IT & New Media from Rochester Institute of Technology.
Tom Forgacs
Chief Revenue Officer
Tom is an experienced enterprise sales leader with a passion for building high-performing teams and driving positive customer outcomes. With a career spanning over a decade, Tom has consistently delivered results by fostering collaborative environments and focusing on customer value. At Imgix, Tom leads the Sales and Marketing organizations, focusing on expanding the company's reach and delivering tangible results to clients through innovative optimization of media assets.
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