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Photo-sharing app founded as a gift to girlfriend sweeps $12.5M funding

Locket
Image credits: Locket

Locket Labs, a popular app for sharing photos straight to your family and friends’ home screens, has secured $12.5M funding led by Open AI CEO, Sam Altman. 

Other investors include Sugar Capital, Costanoa Ventures, and additional strategic investment from Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo. 

In addition to the recent fundraising, less than a year after launching and hitting #1 in app stores in 30 countries, Locket has surpassed the 1B photos-shared milestone. 

“This significant milestone is a testament to Gen Z’s shifting tastes away from traditional social media channels into a more personalised experience that prioritises close connections over the ‘friend them all’ model,” says the company. 

Regarding fundraising, we at Tech Funding News spoke to Locket founders to explore more about Locket in various aspects. 

Matt Moss says, “These funds will fuel continued hiring efforts and product development as the company expands its community and prepares to release a steady flow of new interactive features to further strengthen connections with friends and family.”

Founded Locket as gift to girlfriend

Matt Moss, a former Apple Worldwide Developer Conference student scholarship winner and recent UC Santa Barbara grad, founded Locket as a gift for his girlfriend to stay in touch as the couple navigated their long-distance relationship. 

Moss shares, “I wanted to find a way to reduce the distance between us, but none of the existing social platforms felt right. They were all too impersonal, high friction, or boring. I had the Locket idea and built it over a few weeks. It felt like magic to get updates from her throughout the day, right on my home screen. Over the last 6 months, we’ve used the app extensively and have sent over 1,500 pictures to each other.”

Upon his friend’s request, he made Locket publicly available on the app platform, including App Store (iOS) and Play Store (Android). 

“After friends asked to try the app, we invited a few people in December. Our friends began to get significant usage out of Locket, and I even started getting messages daily about how much friends enjoyed it. With all this feedback, I launched Locket on the App Store on January 1st. After a few viral videos and 25M views on TikTok, Locket became the #1 app in over 30 countries,” adds Matt

“Locket officially launched in January of 2022, propelling quickly to #1 on the App Store in 30 countries worldwide. Last week they hit the milestone of over 1 Billion photos shared.”

Community-driven

Currently, the team consists of three core members, however, they are planning to hire new talents to help continue expanding Locket to lead the social space to strengthen the close relationship. 

Since the launch, Locket has provided its community with several features. 

“Locket rolled out new and exciting features such as increasing the number of connections to 20 individuals, sending emoji reactions to friends, and adding multiple widgets dedicated to special people on the screen for further personalization. Though specifics on upcoming features cannot be shared publicly at this time, the Locket Team is excited to unveil additional features in the coming months,” says the spokesperson. 

According to Moss, Locket is designed to make people feel closer to the 10-15 people in their lives that matter the most. As a result, the widget allows users to add up to 20 people to their homescreen. 

“The team is working towards a future where smartphone home screens are the central hub for staying in touch with friends and family,” the spokesperson concludes. 

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