Locket, an app that lets users send live photos to their family and friends right on their smartphone home screens, recently raised $12.5 million dollars in a new funding round. Locket became popular as soon as it launched on New Year’s Day, climbing to the top of the app charts and amassing more than 20 million downloads so far. Locket founder Matt Moss joined Cheddar News to talk about the app. “I think with raising this round, talking with investors and talking with users, the kind of massive opportunity we see is that there's always going to be this desire to stay in contact with those people you really care about, and as these bigger social platforms do drift in a different direction, that's just going to be an even bigger opportunity for Locket to fill that need.”


Closing Bell

Locket Photo-Sharing App Raises $12.5 Million

you've probably heard of this company before, we've talked about it on our show Lock. It is a new app that lets people see live photos to their family and friends right on their home screens, raising 12.5 million in a new funding round. Locket is widget, which is essentially an app that is always running on the home screen of a smartphone. And the widget is designed to connect people to those that are closest to by allowing them to send and receive photos in a more direct way than text message. Well, it's quickly become popular with users reaching the top of the app store charts after launching on New Year's Day this year and amassing more than 20 million downloads so far. So joining me now is Matt Moss, founder of Locket. Matt. Congratulations, thanks so much for coming on the show, explain to me how this works. Hey Kristin, it's great to be here. So yeah, so look, it is a home screen widget, you add the widget to your home screen and then throughout the day you'll see photos sent from your best friends and family, right on your home screen. So it's this really casual, intimate way of staying up to date with your, your favorite people day in day out now, um what kind of privacy do you have to hand over to do this? Obviously you're engaging with your closest contacts, but I think this day and age, that's the biggest question that people have when they download something. Yes, so I think one of the biggest strengths of the app is that you can only actually add 20 friends on the app. So it's really geared towards keeping you close with those, you know, 5, 10, 15, 20 people that you really care a lot about. Um and that means that you're not kind of broadcasting these photos to, you know, tons of different friends, it's really just content for those people that you care a lot about. So I think that that's kind of the first part of it, and then the second part of it is we obviously take as all kind of industry standard precautions to make sure that data is is stored securely as possible so that your private memories stay private. Okay, so if you're a private member, it sounds like I think you were staying there, matt, the information does stay private. I'm just curious the business model, how you're planning to make money on this. Yeah, totally. Um so I think, you know, for the time being, our focus is definitely on building the best product possible. I think in the long run we really have to deliver on a building something that does make people feel, you know, a little bit closer to those 5, 10, 15 people that they really care about. Um you know, over time. I think if we can be successful with that then, and, you know, there's a really substantial subscription business that can be built on top of that so long as we do actually deliver in the great product in the first place. So, you know, for now that that is the real focus and then we'll kind of level up from there, so I guess simply why do you suggest people use lock it versus just texting photos to each other? Yeah, so I think there's there's something about being on the home screen, you know, it means that the photo is kind of always there every time you open your phone, there's something really delightful about opening your phone and you know, kind of seeing this this new content from people you care about. Um you know, the app really started from a place of personal usage and that's what really kind of, you got me into it in the first place when I was actually building it, like, it did continue to be delightful day in day out seeing those photos. Um I think the second part of it is it kind of helps you stay in contact in the long run. So with something like text messages, you know, you have to remember to go in every day, send a photo randomly. I think there's kind of some, some stigma attached maybe where sending random photos to people out of the blue just doesn't feel quite as natural, but if there's a special place on your phone which is really dedicated to, you're keeping in touch with these people you really care about and sending photos day in day out then, I think people send a lot more photos and kind of feel a lot better about it, which is, look, I like the premise, I think the name is great as well and again, recently raising 12.5 million matt, Congratulations, How are you going to use that money to grow the business? Yeah, thanks a ton. So I think we're at a super exciting spot as a company where we have had all this kind of incredible traction right from day one, just crossed 20 million downloads and over a billion photos sent on the app. But what we're really excited about now is building this, you know, great team of people who really care about just building the best product at the end of the day to take this, this massive opportunity we have and kind of turn it into something even bigger. So all of this funding is, is, you know, going towards continuing to build up that team and you know, it is a tricky time in the startup space really, in the tech sector, broadly, we're seeing layoffs hiring freezes and I would say it kind of is just indicative to the tech space, high growth companies and startups right now. And so how are you able to convince investors matt that they should invest in your company and now be in a position where you can expand instead of trim back. Yeah, so I think, um, you know, another part of that is also that social media is just kind of heading in this direction at the moment, which is much more algorithmic based recommendation based. And you see this with a lot of the bigger social platforms, they're moving towards this, you know, kind of 11 too many content and showing you less content from the friends and family that you really care about. Um so I think with raising this round, talking with investors and talking with users, um the kind of massive opportunity we see is that that there's always gonna be this desire to, you know, stay in contact with those people you really care about and as these bigger social platforms do drift in a different direction, that's just gonna be an even bigger opportunity for perhaps like lock it to fill that need um that's kind of always going to be a need, you know, irregardless of kind of market trends and all those other things. So we're still at this really exciting spot as a company where we do have this spark of something that can become great and and yeah, I'm really excited to kind of use this funding to to take that spark and make something even bigger. Digital Lock it matt Moss, founder of locket matt, thank you so much for coming on the show, We appreciate it