A planned Twitter alternative dubbed ‘T2’ just raised $1.1 million

A startup that began as a series of tweets is now positioning itself as an incoming alternative to Twitter. A group of 17 investors has delivered a $1.1 million seed round for a company that carries the working title T2. Will its development signal Twitter’s judgment day?

T2 is the brainchild of Gabor Cselle, whose work experience includes stints at Google and Twitter. During the early days of Elon Musk’s Twitter reign — which the New York Times accurately described as “two weeks of chaos” — Cselle shared some thoughts about opportunities Musk was missing. One thing led to another, and before long, T2 was born.

Cselle doesn’t have a revolutionary vision for T2. Instead, while Elon Musk breaks his promises, Cselle wants to build a simple platform for short-form posts. He told TechCrunch that he will create a “familiar place that is very close to the original [Twitter].”

T2 is not the only Twitter killer in the works. In the wake of Musk’s acquisition, many Twitter users fled to alternative platforms like Mastodon and Hive. The former platform quickly developed a reputation for dullness. Hive had more initial success, snagging more than one million downloads. Unfortunately, its progress was sapped by several security issues, which forced it offline.

Taking on Twitter is no small task, but Cselle has assembled a strong team of investors. Contributors to T2’s seed round include Google VP Bradley Horowitz and former Wikipedia CEO Katherine Maher.

Cselle plans to “start small” with T2, so it could be some time before the platform even has an official name. In the meantime, interested users can join the T2 waitlist.