FINANCIAL TIMES - SoftBank invested $150M in IRL, a social media app touted as the next Facebook, in 2022. However, suspicions arose among former employees about the platform's authenticity despite claims of widespread usage. The startup was quietly shut down 15 months later when investors discovered evidence that the majority of its reported 20M users were fake. Now, IRL's collapse has led to legal battles between SoftBank and the app's founder, Abraham Shafi, who alleges premature closure based on inconclusive data. The case raises questions about SoftBank's due diligence and marks another setback for the conglomerate after the WeWork debacle.
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SoftBank's Investment in IRL Turns Sour Amid Fraud Allegations
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IRL Founders Allege Investors Sabotaged Company With Fake Users Claims
TECH CRUNCH - The founders of IRL (In Real Life), Abraham Shafi and Genrikh Khachatryan, are suing their investors, including Chi-Hua Chien of Goodwater Capital, Serena Dayal of SoftBank, and Mike Maples of Floodgate, alleging they sabotaged the company. IRL, once a promising event organizing platform for Gen Z, raised ~$200M and was valued at $1.17B. However, following Shafi's suspension as CEO over misconduct allegations, an investigation revealed that 95% of IRL's 20M users were purportedly fake. The founders now claim these figures were fabricated by the investors as a pretext to shut down IRL and recoup the company's $40M in cash. This lawsuit comes amid ongoing investigations by the SEC into IRL for potentially misleading investors, violating securities laws.
by Amanda Silberling
See full article at Tech Crunch
See the top news on IRL
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SoftBank Sues Social Media Startup Over Fake User Numbers
CNBC - SoftBank's Vision Fund II has filed a lawsuit against IRL, a social media startup it invested in, accusing the company's founders of inflating user metrics, misleading the fund, and defrauding it of millions. IRL allegedly used bots to create a false appearance of user engagement. The lawsuit highlights concerns over the scrutiny of SoftBank's portfolio companies and the challenges of AI-driven content recommendations.
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Social Messaging App IRL Shuts Down After 95% of Its Users Found to Be Fake
IANS - IRL, a social messaging app backed by SoftBank, is closing its operations after discovering that 95% of its users were automated or bots. The app, which had raised $200M in funding, suspended its CEO earlier for alleged misconduct. IRL had previously claimed 20M MAUs but found them to be mostly fake. The company plans to return capital to shareholders.
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IN REAL LIFE: Social Networking App That's Determined to Get Users off Their Phone
MIAMI HERALD - IRL, which stands for 'In Real Life,' aims to transfer the limitless networking potential of online spaces, into the real world. IRL presently has ~20M active users and has trended at number one on the App Store multiple times. IRL is a new breed of a social platform created specifically to help users explore their passions by encountering like-minded people.
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Messaging Social Network Firm IRL to Soon Become Talking Point in MENA
ARAB NEWS - IRL, or In Real Life, the US-based messaging social network company, is expanding its footprint in the MENA region in a few weeks, following its partnership with global mixed martial arts promotion company UFC. Valued at $1.17B, IRL is a leading group messaging social network unicorn that brings people together through groups, events, and community engagement. The company currently has ~20M users on its platform, with ~12M MAU.
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IRL Becomes the Official Group Messaging and Fan Chat Platform of UFC
PR NEWSWIRE - In a first-of-its-kind global partnership, UFC and IRL launched "Join the Conversation" and "Social Tagboard" content features, bringing UFC's athletes and fans together around its biggest events on the fastest-growing social message app. UFC will also provide IRL with a variety of integrations into key UFC assets, ranging from live events and broadcast features to original content distributed through UFC's popular digital and social channels.
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Social App IRL Lays Off 25% of Team, Enough Cash to Last Into 2024
TECH CRUNCH - IRL has just announced it's laying off 25% of its team, or ~25 people, citing market dynamics. The cut comes around a year after the startup landed a $170M SoftBank-led Series C and hit unicorn status. IRL CEO and co-founder Abraham Shafi wrote that IRL has "more than enough cash to last well into 2024." Over the last year, the startup increased its headcount by 3.5 times, but Shafi noted that WhatsApp was able to grow to 450M users with a team of 55. This suggests that the workforce reduction was less about trying to reduce runway and more about right-sizing the team after a period of overhiring. IRL is focused on being an engineering-led organization, suggesting that the layoffs impacted other teams.
by Natasha Mascarenhas & Amanda Silberling
See full article at Tech Crunch
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IRL Makes Its First Acquisition With AaBeZe Labs
TECH CRUNCH - IRL, the SoftBank-backed social app and recent unicorn, announced its first acquisition of the "digital nutrition" company AaBeZe Labs and its portfolio of IP with the goal of making IRL a healthier and more ethically designed social networking app.
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IRL Adds Instagram and Snapchat Executives to the Team
BUSINESS WIRE - Head of Engineering Alex Strand and Head of Partnerships Joanne Lee Join IRL, Adding to the Company's Existing Robust Leadership Team. IRL is the leading group messaging social network that brings people together through group chats, events, and shared experiences. Strand most recently served as Director of Engineering at Snapchat for nearly six years, while Lee joins from a strategy and partnerships leadership role at Instagram.
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Messaging Social Network IRL Hits Unicorn Status With $170M Series C
TECH CRUNCH - June 16 - Social calendar app IRL has been busy building a messaging-based social network, or what founder and CEO Abraham Shafi calls a "WeChat of the West." IRL announced a $170M Series C growth round, led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2. They also fundraise mints IRL as a new unicorn with a $1.17B valuation. IRL focused on pulling in popular online events from Live Nation, Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, and others. IRL has 20M users and 12M MAU.
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IRL Turns Its Events Website Into a Social Network
TECH CRUNCH - Feb 2 - Following its $16 million Series B last fall, event discovery network IRL is launching a new website that adds more social features around events, including profiles, chats, and the ability to join group events. With the changes, users will also be able to receive personalized event recommendations, participate in group events, as well as talk about events with their friends, across both web and mobile. The combined efforts make IRL.com feel less like an online event search engine and more like a real social network. The company also last year redesigned its mobile app to make it easier for users to find new events to attend remotely. The company now reports ~10M monthly active users, and its group messaging feature has been growing at ~30% MoM since August. Today, there are ~30M chats sent on IRL per day, with ~1B chats that have been sent to date, IRL founder and CEO Abraham Shafi says.
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