IRISH STARTUP GIRLCREW has raised a $1 million investment round from senior figures at social media site LinkedIn and chewing gum manufacturer Wrigley.
Founded in 2014 by Elva Carri, Pamela Newenham and Áine Mulloy, GirlCrew was born out of a Facebook group set up to organise a night out.
The startup has since developed smartphone applications that can be used to tap into its online network. The service is now used by women worldwide to find new friends and the company said it has clocked up more than 100,000 members to date.
It announced this week that it has sealed a $1 million round of investment from some influential figures in business and the tech scene as it launches its app on the US market.
LinkedIn chief executive Jeff Weiner and Orla Mitchell, head of marketing at chewing gum firm Wrigley, invested in the startup as part of the round. Liam Casey, the head of Cork manufacturing company PCH, also backed the firm.
Other notable investors included Joe Gallagher, the head of data science at Reddit, and Stuart Coulson – one of Ireland’s first internet millionaires who has also backed customer service firm Intercom. State body Enterprise Ireland also contributed to the round of investment.
According to GirlCrew, the funding will be used for the startup’s expansion in the US. It said the company’s network already has a following stateside with thousands of women on a waiting list to get the app.
GirlCrew’s app is available on both the Apple and Google app stores and on desktop.
After downloading the app, women join a group based on the city or area they live in and can see what events are happening nearby. Members can also read and write posts on the platform and create events themselves.
The GirlCrew app also has topic groups, including travel, careers, fashion and fitness, where users can ask for advice and share tips relevant to the subject matters.
Accounts published this week for GirlCrew Limited show that the firm made a loss of nearly €280,000 during 2017 and had an average of five staff including the three directors.
Written by Killian Woods and posted on Fora.ie
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