Techstars Atlanta graduate Vlipsy, a startup that allows users to search for and share short, sound-enabled video clips from popular culture (think GIFs, but with sound), has raised funding from Cox Enterprises as part of a $1.3 million seed round. Additional investors include JumpStart Inc., North Coast Angel Fund and Impact Angel Fund.
“This seed funding, combined with the momentum coming out of Techstars, will allow us to ramp up our apps and partnerships, grow our team and continue integrating more media partners,” says Vlipsy CEO and co-founder Chris Nickless.
Vlipsy is tackling the market of young, mobile users who send 6 billion emojis and a billion GIFs each day through text message, messaging apps and social media. They say that adding the element of sound makes their medium even more engaging for users.
Vlipsy’s app is available on iOS and Android, allowing Vlips to be shared through SMS, WhatsApp, SMS, Facebook, Messenger and Twitter. Users can download Vlips to share to visual-friendly social media platforms like Instagram and Skype.
They’ve also announced early distribution partnerships with Skype and Viber, and hope to integrate with even more communication platform (think Slack and Kik) to expand their user base even more.
Nickless says the partnership with Cox, and access to the company’s media arm, will be valuable in the future.
“Cox is very innovative and forward-thinking around their media strategies — they’re also exploring video and how people are consuming media,” says Nickless. “So much of Gen Z’s consumption of media is around social influencers, and around social sharing through video. That’s really the market where we see Vlipsy moving into.”
He also says the Techstars Atlanta program, which is presented in partnership with Cox, has been instrumental to their growth.
“My co-founder and I worked together for 10 years, and we honestly didn’t even originally realize just how beneficial the Techstars network would be,” says Nickless. “Anywhere you go, in any city, you’re just two degrees of separation from anyone in the network.”
“When we met Chris and Matt, we immediately knew their team was solid,” says Techstars Atlanta Managing Director Michael Cohn. “The duo spent the last decade building messaging and social consumer products; so when they started Vlipsy, we knew we wanted to be part of that journey.”
Featured image via Jenni Girtman
