Anonymous social sharing app Secret has secured a new investment amounting to $8.6 million, TechCrunch reported.
The round for the app widely used among those in the tech industry came from Gary Tan and Alexis Ohanian of Initialized Capital, MG Siegler of Google Ventures, KPCB's Bing Gordon and Megan Quinn, Fuel Capital's Chris Howard and Brad Silverberg, Vivi Nevo, SV Angel, actor Ashton Kutcher of A-Grade Investments, David Sacks, Bill Lee, Pete Cashmore, Joe Montana, Rob Wiesenthal and Andrew Chen. There were also other angel investors who were not named that participated in the round. In its announcement about the funding, Secret said there were no new members added to its Board of Directors which is now composed only of Co-Founders David Byttow and Chrys Bader.
The statement about the funding said, "Our vision is to create a world flowing with authenticity. Being more open with each other brings us closer together, builds understanding, and ultimately makes the world a better place. Our Series A funding enables us to curate a small, passionate team of artists and builders, listen closely to the community and continue to focus on the work in order to make it happen."
The official announcement confirmed earlier reports from sources that the secretive startup had secured $10 million in a funding round spearheaded by Google Ventures and joined in by KPCB. Sources had said that at that amount, the company was valued at $50 million, TechCrunch reported.
In addition to the announcement about the funding, the 45-days old company also found an interesting fact about how users were engaging with the service. Secret said that it has "found a direct correlation between the number of friends a user has and their engagement on Secret. Notably, 75% of people with more than 5 friends come back every day. Furthermore, 90% of users that engage in a conversation come back within the week, often several times per day. Data like this reaffirms our belief that there is opportunity to build a platform around rich and unexpected conversations."
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