Locket provides a lock-screen messaging app called ScreenPop that lets Android users snap a photo and send it directly to friends' lock screens without opening an app. Users can add emojis, doodles and captions to every photo, and photos sent to friends last only until the recipient swipes to unlock their phone. The app launched a beta in which many users were sending over 40 photos per day. ScreenPop is available for free on Google Play. Locket raised $3.2M in funding to support the company’s development and marketing efforts. The company is led by CEO and co-founder Yunha Kim and is based in San Francisco, CA. Locket is an Android application that places ads and other content on users' lock screens and lets users earn small amounts when they swipe to engage. The app launched this summer and has worked with dozens of brands including Hershey’s, HotelTonight, Sunny D, Sears, ZipCar, eBay, and Spotify. Advertisers report click-through rates on Locket campaigns ranging from about 3 to 5 percent. Users earn only pennies per hour from swipes, and Locket has been adding non-ad content such as weather, quotes, news, and photos from 500px to encourage adoption. The company has also scored an undisclosed content deal with another top app maker. Locket is led by co-founder and CEO Yunha Kim and is in the process of raising a multi-million dollar funding round due to close next year. Locket’s Android app serves full-screen, targeted advertisements on users’ smartphone lock screens and pays users per swipe (1¢ per swipe, capped at 3¢ per hour). Users can swipe one way to engage with an advertiser (website, coupon, trailer, etc.) or swipe the other way to go to their homescreen. Ads are targeted using Facebook profile data (or a short questionnaire), geolocation, app-usage and engagement history. At launch the company has about eight advertisers onboard, will run house ads, and expects more than ten advertisers within a month; it also has undisclosed deals in the works with two Fortune 500 firms. Locket operates an in-house creative team and a technical crew that tests ads on 20 top Android phones and is working to limit battery impact and broad device compatibility during its beta. The founders are Yunha Kim, Paul Jang, and Christopher Crawford, and the team is currently working out of a Manhattan apartment.

Total raised

$4M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Feb 2015