A photo-sharing app which now captures 100 million memories a month has raised £24m in Series A funding.
Lapse enables groups of friends to avoid the pressures of traditional social networks by emulating the experience of film cameras.
Inspired by the experience of using a point-and-shoot film camera whilst backpacking in Vietnam in 2019, Ben Silvertown and his brother Dan built the app to help people live in the moment when taking and sharing photos.
It allows friends in group chats to take a ‘roll’ of 36 shots together – all of which are a mystery until they ‘develop’ the next day in a private social experience, showcased as an animated montage called a Lapse.
Group members can react to and comment on photos, and save or export individual shots or the full Lapse.
The round was co-led by Greylock and DST Global Partners while existing investors GV (Google Ventures), Octopus Ventures and Speedinvest returned to participate alongside high-profile angel investors Naveen Gavini (former chief product officer at Pinterest), Soleio (designer and investor), Nima Khajehnouri (former VP of Engineering at Snap Inc.) and Praveen Murugesan (former director of engineering at Uber).
In 2023 Lapse hit No.1 in the Apple US & UK App Stores. It says that more and more young people are making an active decision not to partake in the traditional game of ‘likes and followers’ that rules social media.
“Lapse doesn’t let you upload or edit in ways that other platforms encourage,” said Ben Silvertown. “Everyone on Lapse plays by the same rules, which creates a space where it’s OK to share all moments, not just the glamorous.”
Lapse now plans to expand its engineering and technical teams.
“We’re humbled that what we have built has resonated so strongly with so many. We’ve only scratched the surface of our grander vision: to build a new kind of social media,” said Dan Silvertown.
“As we enter this next chapter, we are grateful to our partners for their ongoing support and belief in this company.”
Sony to cut Liverpool & London jobs in PlayStation restructure