Instacanvas Launches Global Marketplace For Instagram Prints

Given that it’s pretty hard to take a really bad photo with Instagram, it’s only natural that some users would want to turn their images into physical objects to hang on their walls. There are a few companies out there that allow you to print your Instagram photos on canvas, but Instacanvas is probably the first site that focuses on letting Instagram users sell their own images on canvas to other users. The LA-based graduate of MuckerLab‘s startup accelerator launched its beta just eight weeks ago and is officially coming out of beta today.

The site already features over 30,000 galleries and currently sees about 1.1 million unique monthly visitors.

As Instacanvas’s CEO and co-founder Matt Munson told me yesterday, the instant success of the site took the four-person team by surprise. When it first opened up its doors after the team invited a handful of Instagram users to try it, the site quickly went viral and Instacanvas signed up over 4,000 users in its first 72 hours.

Artists can set up their own galleries on the site within minutes, though because of the current demand, there is currently a waiting list (users can skip ahead of the line by having their friends request their galleries, though). Prints start at $39.95 for 12″ x 12″ frames and go up to $79.99 for 20″ x 20″ canvases. Instacanvas pays out 20% of the sale price of each item sold.

The company will ship internationally (though international shipping, of course, is costly). It’s also currently testing printers in Europe and Asia to make things easier and cheaper for its international customers. As Munson stressed, though, the actual image treatment in done in-house – only the printing itself is outsourced.

You can, of course, also have Instacanvas print your own pictures and there’s no waiting list for that (those prints start at $31).