GroupMe offers a service that lets users create on-the-fly text messaging groups and conference calls. The company was conceived at the TechCrunch Disrupt: New York hackathon and is about eight months old. It says millions of text messages are being sent via GroupMe each week. The team is small, with 10 employees. Financially, GroupMe has closed a new financing round of $10.6 million and had previously raised $850,000. GroupMe originated as a hack-day project at TechCrunch Disrupt on May 22 and has launched a service that creates private SMS groups via a unique phone number assigned to each group. Users add members by replying with #add or via text, and group messages from any member are delivered to all other members; the product also supports commands to mute groups, change topics, and list members. Members can initiate a group conference call by calling the group number so everyone’s phone rings. GroupMe works with Twilio to power SMS and calling and plans future integration with Location Labs for location/presence features. The founders, Jared Hecht (formerly at Tumblr) and Steve Martocci (formerly at Gilt Groupe), say they plan to build contextual group advertising, app-to-app features, and group-buying plays. The company has closed an $850,000 angel financing to support these plans.

Total raised

$11M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Jan 2011