Yik Yak is an anonymous messaging app founded in 2013 that has become popular across college campuses in the US (now featuring around 1,300 of them). The young company recently announced that they have raised $61M of a possible $62M in a Series B funding round led by Sequoia Capital. In April 2014 they raised $1.5M in seed funding, and another $10M later in June. Notable investors in the deals include venture capitalist Tim Draper, RenRen Inc., Azure Capital Partners, and DCM.
Yik Yak was founded by Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington, recent Furman graduates. The company has been growing more popular throughout the last year, though not without some challenges. Still, Yik Yak seems to be doing well in a market for apps that is getting pretty overcrowded – companies like Snapchat, Secret, and Whisper have also had successful funding rounds for apps that focus on anonymity.
Right now Yik Yak’s edge is their college focus, though the startup’s founders would like to see it used by college graduates in urban areas. Like Twitter, this app allows users to post short messages that are less than 200 characters. One way that they are trying to grow their service and attract more users is by including a mapping feature that lets you to tune into conversations from different local areas. A post by the Atlanta Business Chronicle said:
“The company launched its ‘PEEK’ feature, allowing users to look in on what users have to say about current events or stay connected to their university and local communities. The PEEK functionality delivers a feed of news and commentary coming from a specific location.”
One troubling issue with the app is that it has been misused in high schools by students to harass their peers or play pranks. According to an online post by The Wall Street Journal:
“In response, the startup has tried to restrict the app’s use through geo-fencing, building virtual walls around the addresses of high schools … Though the effort has worked in many locations, the company has struggled to snuff out the problem. Last week, for instance, a high school in Southern California was closed for two days after a Yik Yak user posted a message threatening the school. The same week, three teens were arrested in Pleasant Hill, Iowa, after similar threats surfaced.”
The app is supposed to help make people feel freer to share content online because it is anonymous, but Yik Yak’s creators suggest that high school students don’t have the maturity required to use it properly (they specify that users must be 18+ or 17 with parent or guardian permission).
The startup has received a lot of negative press because of these cases, and on top of that are dealing with a lawsuit from a former classmate and fraternity brother at Furman who claims that he is one of the company’s co-founders. Yik Yak has said that they intend to fight this lawsuit.
Despite the troubles the company has faced it is currently valued at an estimated $300 to $400M.
