Anonymous iOS messaging app Secret receives $10 million in funding, gets $40 million valuation

With Facebook shelling out $19 billion in cash and stock for WhatsApp, messaging apps are where it's at these days. So we can be pretty sure that the latest round of financing for iOS anonymous messaging app Secret, which valued the company at $40 million, came at an inflated price. Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers combined to invest $10 million in the latest financing round. Both firms invested a total of $1.2 million in December along with some other angel investors.

Secret allows users to send anonymous messages and add a customizable backdrop using a picture or a color. You can even use a blur or textures. Users can also comment on posts made by friends, using a different avatar with each conversation. And when friends like your post, it automatically gets sent to their friends and can go viral in a heartbeat. Secrets can be shared via email, Facebook, text or Twitter.

A week after Secret launched on the App Store, it already was in the top 20 free social apps. The goal now for Secret is to amass as many members as possible. With WhatsApp valued at $42 for each of its 450 million subscribers, the more people that use Secret, the higher the app is valued.


source: Secret, WSJ via GigaOM