Visually raises $8.1M to flood the Internet with even more infographics

How to be happy? Tying scarves? SEO? Dog bowls? Yes, there is an infographic for all of these — and more. And Visually is standing at the ready to supply them.

Today, the marketplace for data visualizations and infographics announced that it has raised $8.1 million in funding.

“Marketplaces have become increasingly popular for a variety of B2C applications from finding places to stay with Airbnb to getting a ride with Uber or Lyft,” CEO Stew Langille told VentureBeat. “Yet, for all of the progress that these companies have made, there is still a clear gap in utilizing marketplaces for businesses.”

Visually connects organizations looking to turn data into visual content with a community of “creatives.” Project owners, such as brands, corporations, and publishers, enter a project into Visually’s system, which matches it with a designer.

Once matched, the two sides work together, with Visually’s team essentially working as a product manager.

“Visually is disrupting the traditional agency model for creating visual content,” Langille said. “We’ve streamlined the process and the result is a combination of higher quality content, faster project completion, and a better user experience for both the creative and brand, and all at a lower cost.”

The company said that its projects are turned around in about one-third the time as an agency, and sometimes as fast as 24 hours, at less than half the price. Visually takes a cut of up to 30 percent on each project’s total cost.

This model works for companies without a large design team, and/or that don’t want to pay for an ad agency. On the other side, the platform connects designers with freelance opportunities.

Visually said it grew 10 times since it launched its project center last year and has paid out $2 million to its network of 100,000 designers.

This capital will fuel this growth and support Visually as it adds new clients and creative workers to its marketplace. Crosslink Ventures led this round, with participation from Correlation Ventures, SoftTechVC, 500 Startups, Giza Ventures, Quest Ventures, and Kapor Capital.

Visually raised $2 million in March. It is based in San Francisco and has raised a total of $12.5 million to date.