Dispo, the still-in-beta photo-sharing platform founded by YouTube megastar David Dobrik, is reportedly eyeing a Series A funding round that would value the buzzworthy app at $100 million.
The Information reports that Dispo is in talks with venture firms Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark, and others about potential equity stakes. While the size of the round has yet to be disclosed, The Information notes that Dispo’s post-money valuation could reach $100 million or more.
Dispo CEO Daniel Liss declined to comment.
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In October, Dispo raised a $4 million seed round led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian through his nascent Seven Seven Six venture firm. Other participants in that round included: Unshackled Ventures, Shrug Capital, Weekend Fund, members of the Vlog Squad, Latin World Entertainment’s Sofia Vergara and Luis Balaguer, The Chainsmokers, Roivant CEO Vivek Ramaswamy, Lime CEO Wayne Ting, Knowable CEO Warren Shaeffer, Brud CEO Trevor McFedries, Pizzaslime co-founders Matt Hwang and Stove, and Seatgeek executive Ian Borthwick.
Dispo, which started its life as an Instagram account and then became a camera app, currently exists as a social network that mimics the experience of taking and developing photos on a disposable camera. The company has said its aim is to restore authenticity to social media.
The platform launched a 10,000-person, invite-only beta test last weekend, and notes on its Twitter profile that an Android version of the app is currently in the works. Forbes reports that users can capture photographs directly on the app — without the use of any editing tools or filters, save for a back-facing camera flash — but must wait 24 hours for them to appear in feeds. And in yet another feature inspired by disposable cameras, users can share their photos to public albums called Rolls — so named for rolls of film.
Forbes reports Dispo has also recently tendered two new hires: Byte founding designer Michael Shillingburg, who will head up visuals for the app, and former Raya executive TJ Taylor, who has been appointed VP of community.
Insta is dead
Dispo is queen
Follow me @ cantino
— Chris Cantino (@chriscantino) February 13, 2021
Though it’s still early days for Dobrik’s brainchild, the app is already garnering substantial acclaim from certain early testers — and even numerous comparisons to photo-sharing forebearer Instagram. In some ways, Dispo feels like a direct challenge to Instagram, given that it prizes patience and authenticity over the careful curation and editing that happens on the Facebook-owned platform — which has also faced a slew of criticism from creators in recent weeks for a move in which it opted to crack down on the repurposing of content between TikTok and its own TikTok clone, Reels.
