A Norwalk-based company called Peep with a proprietary mobile app that lets groups share photos said it has raised $3.7 million in seed money from private investors.
The Peep app is designed to allow large or small groups to share their photos in real time. Rather than publish photos to a stream with followers ”” which Peep identifies as the current solution offered by Facebook, Instagram and others ”” Peep users swipe their photos to a private, shared gallery, called a peep.
The shared galleries can only be joined by request or invitation. Another invitation-only sharing option will allow for invisible “secret peeps.”
The app is free and will initially be available on Apple”™s iOS. The company said the app will be available in beta in late August, with general availability expected by early fall.
Peep said its investors include Bill Grabe, advisory director at Greenwich-based global investment firm General Atlantic; Scott Jamison, entrepreneur and chief product manager at Peep; Bob Jones, chief operating officer at Peep and a former Microsoft executive; Chuck Tannen, an early investor in Priceline.com and former president of New Hampshire-based communications company Target Communications Inc.; and several principals at Old Greenwich-based Ellington Management Group. The company is privately held.
Peep also listed members of its new-formed advisory board. They include investors Jones, Jamison and Grabe, plus Peep CEO Scott Howard; John Trimble, chief revenue officer at Pandora; and Liam Spaeth, CEO and chairman of Massachusetts-based software designers BlueMetal Architects, which helped develop the app”™s platform. Former Unilever director and strategy consultant Paul DiPrato will serve as chief marketing officer. Mark Fernberg, a former Sony Music and TV Guide executive, will serve as CFO.
In a nonboard position, Dan Henry is Peep”™s chief technology officer and patent attorney.
“Just like other platforms have done for group texting, Peep will make sharing photos with select groups quick, private, easy and great fun,” said Howard, founder and CEO of Peep.
