Private family photo and messaging app Togethera has closed a £220,000 round on Crowdcube, which was joined by a host of high-profile entrepreneurs and investors.
The app, which has been featured by Apple in 118 countries, has received backing from Neil Hutchinson, founder of Forward Internet Group, Andrew Bredon, founder of Secret Escapes, and Tom Allason, founder of Shutl, as well as new investors, including Martijn de Wever from Force Over Mass Capital.
Togethera, which promises privacy for families looking to chat and share images wherever they are, currently has 50,000 users and is live in 17 different languages, but the company says it’s still focused on function over user acquisition.
“We weren’t interested in aggressively expanding from day one,” said Togethera cofounder Sokratis Papafloratos. “Too many social networks have quickly boomed, raking in users but then quickly going bust once the hype disappeared.
“We wanted to focus on providing our first users with an ultra-simple, ultra-private network where they could keep in touch with close friends and family and share photos easily. We believe we’ve achieved that and we’re now experiencing the kind of demand we suspected would come if we got the app right.
“Togethera is not competing with Facebook, Pinterest or the other big players in the market,” he added. “We are supporting families, friendship groups, and those that want a private space to communicate and share photo and video content.
“These groups don’t want to be bombarded with adverts or posts from people they hardly know – they want to instantly see and comment on a photo of their granddaughter from the weekend bbq or a happy birthday video-message from their best friend in Australia. Nothing else.”
This brings total funding for Togethera since it launched last year to £750,000.
The company is building out a premium service, a model which they believe represents where the the social networking market is headed, but says it will always be ad-free for users.