Edinburgh-based Kindaba, a private visual messenger for families, has secured investment from Skyscanner co-founder Gareth Williams ahead of the launch of a CrowdFunding Campaign.
Kindaba, whose platform helps customers stay connected with the promise of no adverts and a commitment to respect privacy and protect their data, aims to worldwide and “establish themselves as thought leaders in the FamTech – family technology – space over the next 12 months, the company said in a statement.
“The team is fantastic,” said Williams. ” I can see in Rob, Lizzie and Will an intense desire to make something happen. Whatever the problem space, founders need to have that laser focus in order to stand a chance of getting to their destination. In my experience, the founders and the team they build are so important to the future success of their company.”
Lizzie Brough, co-founder chief exeprience of Kindaba said: “This investment will allow us to scale our customer outreach and bolster our development team so that we can continue to work smart and at speed developing the features our families are searching for.”
Kindaba currently employs eight staff and plans to recruit seven to grow its user base to 100,000 active users. Targeting a market worth £45bn, the funding will be used to accelerate growth through product and business development, marketing, and data analysis.
It was launched last year in response to rising consumer doubt in the ability of advertising-based incumbents like Facebook to respect privacy and protect user data. Coupled with the trend towards socially conscious brands and increasing, it said that loyalty to companies that put social impact at the forefront of their operations had helped the company’s growth.
Already working with privacy conscious parents with young children, grandparents who want to stay in touch with grandchildren around the world, and diaspora communities with strong cultural family ties, Kindaba helps customers to stay connected without adverts and or selling on their date.
Kindaba aims to be profitable by 2021 and has identified three revenue streams; personalised products and gifts that users can send to loved ones through the service, premium features and in-app purchases, and affiliate revenues from family member recommendations.
