Kik has just raised $8 million in Series A funding from RRE Ventures, Spark Capital, and Union Square Ventures. Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson and RRE Ventures’ Adam Ludwin are joining the company’s Board of Directors.
“Kik is a fast, simple, and elegant solution to cross device mobile messaging which we think is one of the most exciting investment opportunities right now…We believe the Kik team has shown that theyunderstand how to deliver the right set of features in the right package…” — Fred Wilson
Kik became insanely popular early on, providing free real-time messaging across Android, Blackberry, and iOS. Just a month later, they got into trouble with RIM, who kicked Kik from the Blackberry app store. RIM also filed a lawsuit against Kik, citing patent infringement, user privacy violations, and what could be seen as corporate espionage as Kik CEO Ted Livingston worked on BlackBerry messenger at RIM.
This latest round of funding shows that Kik is still kicking (ok, I’ll stop now). They also launched new apps for Android and iOS that feature real-time group chat for up to 10 people and the added ability to share photos on-the-fly. This means it is now in direct competition with apps like Beluga and GroupMe.
Beluga, recently purchased by Facebook, immediately made it a requirement that you sign up for the group chat service using a Facebook account. While Facebook said there were no plans to shut down the service, this simple requirement is pretty much the same thing. This could be a turn off for many potential and existing Beluga users, which could give competitors like Kik an edge.
What’s your group messaging app of choice?
via TechCrunch, Kik