Reach is an Israeli-based startup that has launched an iOS app combining anonymous, hyper-local one-to-one chat with keyword-based self-tagged text profiles (70-character bios) to enable people search. Users browse or search keyword tags and can message others without identity verification or photos; the team plans to add photo-sharing inside one-to-one IM later. A forthcoming broadcast feature will let users mass-message those tagged with selected keywords within a local radius, initially delivered to the nearest 50 users with manual screening and an upvote/downvote mechanism to limit spread. The app is currently free and the team has implemented moderation measures including a keyword blacklist and manual broadcast screening to limit abuse. The company used $250,000 in friends-and-family pre-seed funding to cover development costs and is now seeking a seed round to gain traction, initially targeting university campuses such as Manchester University. Longer-term the team envisions a marketplace around connecting people by characteristics and skills, but they say that is several years away and will require multiple product iterations.

Total raised

$0M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Feb 2015