BaseKit, which lets designers build websites from a Photoshop concept without the need to write code, has secured a $2.6m Series A round from Eden Ventures and NESTA (the UK’s National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts).
Today also sees the startup, which was a Seedcamp winner in 2008, launch in the UK and US.
BaseKit, founded by web design entrepreneurs Simon Best, Richard Best and Richard Healy in 2008, wants to streamline the process by which designers turn their visual into actual working websites, most of which work up their finished concept in Photoshop and then often struggle with or outsource the coding skills required to make it a reality. BaseKit adds a degree of automation to the process by “reducing iterative development tasks through a common, fully hosted framework”, enabling working websites to be created faster and without the need to write HTML/CSS. There are also a number of ready-to-use features “from contact forms to social networking” via a drag ‘n’ drop interface.
Users can try BaseKit for free or build a full website with unlimited pages, starting from £5 a month or $8, which could work out at very good value for turning around jobs that aren’t too complex, quickly.
Juan Lobato, CEO of BaseKit, makes the case: “Web designers waste hours coding or spend money hiring someone else to do the job for them. There is no reason to do things this way when you use BaseKit and we see it as a huge market opportunity. By streamlining the process, and becoming the missing link between Photoshop and a live site, BaseKit can become the standard way for web professionals to get their creations online.”
Following a private beta, BaseKit claims more than 20,000 registered users.