Venture capitalSecret raises $10 million at a $50 million valuation
Secret allows users to post messages to their circles of contacts without identifying themselves as the source of the posted message. The start-up, which was launched in January, has closed a $10 million round of funding at a $50 million post-money valuation. The funding was led by Google Ventures, with participation from KPCB.
Secret allows users to post messages to their circles of contacts without identifying themselves as the source of the posted message. Techcrunch reports that the start-up, which was launched in January, has closed a $10 million round of funding at a $50 million post-money valuation. The funding was led by Google Ventures, with participation from KPCB.
Secret was not launched because of the news about the NSA surveillance programs, but as is the case with similar apps — Whisper, Wickr, Confide, Telegram, and others – the company is responding to a growing consumer demand for more user privacy.
Secret is currently only available on iOS in the United States and Canada.
Last month, cofounded David Byttow and Chrys Bader-Wechseler told the Verge that the idea behind the app was to create a forum where people could feel free to speak their minds, without the inhibition created by the need to identify themselves, as is the case with Facebook or Twitter, for example.
In an on-stage interview on Saturday with TC’s Josh Constine, Byttow noted a couple of important points about the new app. Currently only around 10-20 percent of Secret users are creating content, and that anonymous may mean without a name attached to it, but it “doesn’t mean untraceable.”
Techcrunch notes that both Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins also invested in Secret’s $1.43 million seed round, alongside Initialized Capital (the JV formed by Y-Combinator partners Alexis Ohanian, Harj Taggar and Garry Tan); SV Angel; Index Ventures; S-Cubed; Brett Slatkin; Harry Cheung, and Fuel Capital.
