According to Nguyen, Color is built on some serious technology. The company has six patents pending and sees itself as “much more of a research company and a data mining company than a photo sharing site.”

As such, Nguyen explains that Color can ingest and analyze four times the amount of data than Google did in its early days. This, not a tech “bubble” or an early exit, justify the $41 million investment.

CEO Bill Nguyen explains the massive seed funding from Sequoia Capital ($25 million), Bain Capital ($9 million), and Silicon Valley Bank ($7 million)

Why Color got itself $41 million in funding