Messaging app Guild has raised $1.2m (£880,000) in Seed funding.
Guild has built a private professional messaging app which it hopes will replace Whatsapp for workers.
This cash injection will help to develop the product and grow its sales and marketing attempts.
The round, closed on SeedLegals, was raised by the joint efforts of 28 private investors including the two founders, Ashley Friedlein and Matthew O’Riordan.
Friedlein and O’Riordan also co-founded Econsultancy which they sold in 2012 to Centaur Media for £24m.
CEO Friedlein explained: “We think it is time professionals had a messaging app that is properly private, GDPR-compliant and designed just for work use. Research suggests there are already over half a billion people using WhatsApp for professional use and that’s the market Guild is going after.”
Guild, which is based in London, enables users to delete their content or profile at any time and decide whether they want email notifications or not.
Professor Robin Dunbar, of ‘Dunbar’s Number’ Fame has also joined the advisory board, and more hires will be announced before the company launches in Autumn 2018.