Chute, a new Y Combinator startup launching today, doesn’t just want to be another photo sharing or syncing app, it wants to the service every app developer and content producer uses to manage and enhance their photo capabilities. Chute is an Images-as-a-Service startup or, in other words, a cool API for photos. What does that mean?

Every time a developer or a site owner wants to build photo functionality into their app or website, they’re essentially forced to re-invent the wheel. Mobile developers aren’t always familiar with the ins-and-outs of web development, just as the same can be said for web developers, so Chute has built a system that works for both, handling the entire backend environment for uploading, processing, authenticating, resizing, and serving images.

This means big savings for developers, both in terms of time and money, as they don’t have to worry about managing servers, scaling, or dealing with multiple third-party APIs. Another way to think of Chute says co-founder Ranvir Gujral: “It’s like Twilio for photo infrastructure.”