• GROU.PS

  Led · Series A · Jun 2009

  GROU.PS is a social groupware platform that enables users to create private, branded social networks using customizable templates and white-label tools. Its flagship addition is "theBook," a Facebook-style template that founder Emre Sokullu says increased engagement within groups by over 50%. One group, Lagbook, used the design to grow to 35,000 members in six months. The company offers a $29.95/month Platinum plan that includes a white-label mobile app generator available on Android and BlackBerry (the iPhone/iPad app remains branded GROU.PS), and a future release will add events and push notifications. GROU.PS repositioned itself as a SaaS business, introduced premium pricing, and acquired Flux Networks, which runs Social Project for brands including MTV, Comedy Central, The Daily Show, Atom and TeenNick. The company reports over 9 million registered users and more than 5 million monthly uniques and has completed an undisclosed round of financing backed by Golden Horn Ventures. GROU.PS offers a DIY social network platform that lets community moderators run wikis, photos, blogs, calendars, chat, forums, maps, profiles and subgroups from a single domain using plug-and-play modules. The platform supports third-party integrations (Flickr, Digg, blogs, etc.) and recently launched Elastic Modules to let publishers customize how data is displayed and modify backend behavior beyond simple template skins. GROU.PS added ActivityRank Pipelines, a point-and-reward system that measures member contributions and lets moderators extend privileges based on rankings. The company is launching a subscription model that allows moderators to charge fees to members, with GROU.PS taking a 50% cut. The service has grown to 2 million users and hosts over 40,000 networks, adding 1 million users in the past six months. GROU.PS has raised $1 million in its most recent funding round, bringing total funding to over $2 million, while competing with larger platforms such as Ning. Grou.ps offers an integrated set of collaboration tools — chat, blogs, wikis, forums, mailing lists, photo albums, bookmarking, calendaring and maps — accessible from a single Grou.ps domain and login. The site launched a public beta in April and reports about 200,000 active users worldwide. It also mashes content from Flickr and YouTube and allows group owners to add AdSense, though Grou.ps itself does not run ads. The company plans to open-source a restricted version of its code to commoditize the platform faster and attract top programming talent. Founder Emre Sokullu (originally from Turkey) is leading the effort from San Francisco.

No current team members are available.