Lapse is a photo-sharing app built for friends, founded in 2021 by Ben and Dan Silvertown and based in London, UK. The app uses a disposable-camera-inspired interface to encourage authentic, unedited photo sharing and to keep users "in the moment." Its concept found an engaged audience, reaching a peak of 100 million real moments captured monthly. The company plans to use its new funding for feedback-driven product updates and to expand its engineering and technical teams to support growth. Lapse positions itself as an alternative to traditional social media dynamics focused on likes and followers. The product emphasis and user engagement metric are central to its growth strategy. Lapse provides a private, group-based photo experience where users collaborate on 36-photo rolls that are developed and revealed to the group 24 hours after a roll begins. The app currently uses a single back-camera lens and an image-processing agent developed with 30 professional photographers to produce a point-and-shoot analogue-style look. Users see developed images in a rapid slideshow inside a group chat, with options to save and share externally; the founders are deliberately avoiding ad-based monetization and have discussed a freemium approach and options like removing Lapse branding as paid features. Lapse launched in September, quickly attracted 10,000 beta users, briefly hit the top of Apple’s download charts, and built a waitlist of 150,000. Engagement metrics reported include a 15% retention among downloaders, 79% of users female, 71% under age 24, and roughly 80% U.S.-based users. The company is early-stage, founded by brothers Dan and Ben Silvertown, and plans further product development as part of a multi-step roadmap for its analogue-film approach. Lapse is a London-based photo app founded by brothers Ben and Dan Silvertown that restricts sharing to curated groups of friends and enforces a 24-hour delay on photos to recreate film-like anticipation. The product aims to encourage bolder compositions and authenticity by removing instantaneous broadcasting and focusing on a smaller internet social graph. Lapse operates an invite-only launch and has already collected over 150,000 pre-orders. The company raised $1.4 million in a seed funding round that closed in four days. The round was led by Speedinvest with participation from Atomico’s angel programme (Sameer Singh) and a group of angel investors. Proceeds will be used to further develop the product and toward launching the app.

Total raised

$42M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

Feb 2024