With the goal of getting you to take your eyes off your phone and start bumping into your friends again, Sup’s iOS 9 app launches today with $1.1m of backing from a roster of impressive names.
You can set up Sup to automatically let you know if your friends are nearby, or it lets you see them on ‘your radar’, and then enables you to Sup, Sup Voice or text them if you want to meet up.
It doesn’t give away your exact location, ensuring you can’t be bothered by all those pesky super-fans that are starting to mount up, and the team envisages the conversation goes something like: “Wow, so pleased you Sup’d, let’s meet up?”
The company is now backed by the Innocent Drinks founders through their JamJar fund, along with The Collective Elevator, which invests in products specifically aimed at 21 to 35-year-olds, Force Over Mass Capital, Jim Mellon and Wahanda founder Lopo Champalimaud.
The funding will be used to build out teams in key target cities of London and New York.
Founder Rich Pleeth is a former Googler and was a marketer at GetTaxi, now Gett. Sup was on of the winners of the latest Elevator Pitch series, with his video going live next week.
For those who sobbed at the closure of Google Latitude (ok, so it wasn’t everyone, but it wasn’t a bad idea!) and aren’t already bogged down with trying to avoid your too-many-to-manage bunch of friends, this slick app could be the one for you.
“When people come together, magic happens and with Sup, you can use an app while not being tracked,” said founder, Rich Pleeth.
“If you’re bored at lunch, after work or in a new city, you don’t want to broadcast your exact location to the world, but you’re happy to share that you’re in a particular radius with friends that are also in that radius. Instead of messaging friends, asking them if they’re around for a drink, you can see on the radar who is nearby and actually meet people more.”