Buddy, a social utility app designed to get you off your telephone and socializing in actual life, introduced a $1.1 million pre-seed funding spherical from recreation veterans Tim Willits and Vince Zampella.
The Los Angeles startup additionally has signed up Dennis Fong, the primary professional gamer and CEO of GGWP, as an adviser.
This funding and trade experience will propel Buddy’s formidable product roadmap, which incorporates modern AI-driven gaming options, the corporate mentioned.
“We’re not simply right here to play the sport, we’re right here to alter it. I’m so grateful to have a celebrity workforce of trade heavyweights who received’t sleep till we’ve made a major, optimistic influence,” mentioned Claire Wright, CEO and founding father of Buddy, in a press release. “We’re constructing greater than only a product — we’re making a device that empowers folks to actually dwell life, join, and thrive in ways in which matter. Our mission is to drive tradition, spark change, and redefine what it means to have interaction with the world round us.”
Buddy was constructed with Gen Z and Gen A advisors, and it desires to redefine social interplay, merging digital and bodily experiences with a give attention to non-toxic, non-public engagement. Using patented mesh
know-how, Buddy allows connectivity even with out mobile or Wi-Fi networks accessible, and the corporate continues to innovate, anticipating and fulfilling the subsequent technology’s wants, even earlier than they come up.
Help from gaming leaders
“Buddy’s elementary mission to create a more healthy and safer social platform deeply resonates with me as a mum or dad of triplet Gen Z children,” mentioned Tim Willits, chief artistic officer at Saber Interactive, in a press release. “I’ve seen how conventional social media apps can influence my kids’s well-being, scrolling endlessly, typically leaving them feeling insecure and alone. BUDDY prioritizes real-world connections, empowering them to construct significant, actual relationships that actually help them as people, even in areas with out dependable cell or Wi-Fi service.”
Vince Zampella, cofounder of Respawn Leisure and an exec at Digital Arts, mentioned in a press release, “Buddy’s patented tech and the skilled leisure and workforce members are spectacular. The mission of selling connectivity and real-life connection is an thrilling cultural shift, and one I can help. As a father of digital natives, I’m at all times looking out for funding alternatives that push higher types of connection. It’s thrilling to see the subsequent wave of developments in social platforms.”
And Dennis Fong, whose digital security instruments at GGWP assist shield customers on among the largest on-line platforms, mentioned in a press release he’s very aligned with Buddy’s mission.
“I’m comfortable to be a part of Buddy’s journey,” Fong said. “The dedication to fostering wholesome and real connections on this digital age is significant, and I imagine Buddy is uniquely positioned to guide this alteration.”
What Buddy will do
Buddy desires to revolutionize person connections by remodeling URL interactions into real-life experiences. Its proprietary mesh know-how permits seamless communication with out counting on conventional networks, enabling customers to foster significant relationships of their on a regular basis lives.
The app has been in beta testing on cellular since Might.
The Buddy workforce brings intensive expertise from main Fortune 500 corporations in music, interactive leisure, and know-how. Wright is a three-time founder and leisure government, having achieved a notable DTC exit.
CTO and cofounder Logan Nguyen beforehand labored at Luminary, Gilt Groupe and S’Extra and has had
a number of exits. CSO and cofounder Ryh-Ming Poon beforehand led international comms and technique for multi-billion greenback franchises at Activision Blizzard and Jam Metropolis. This powerhouse workforce merges unmatched
experience to construct the world’s first social utility app.
I requested if the app was targeted at younger customers. In an e mail to GamesBeat, Wright replied, “Buddy was constructed with and for Gen Z, as they’re very specific about options and UI/UX. Buddy is a social utility device, a useful resource, that’s useful for everybody because it means that you can be linked with out communication infrastructure – however our anti-marketing, lo-fi design, and AI-driven location-based gamification rewarding finish customers for experiencing life in particular person, are undoubtedly geared extra in the direction of Zoomers.”
Wright added, “Buddy’s modern acquisition technique, addressing the ever growing CAC (buyer acquisition price) drawback with DTC apps, allowed us to construct an app they need and wish, since we don’t have to satisfy display screen time metrics. Buddy is the antidote to the eye economic system, and we’re right here to assist improve customers’ lives, not strip them away from it.”
I requested what makes Buddy distinctive.
Wright mentioned, “Buddy is an app that rewards customers for going on the market and dwelling life. Our customers are those that have drained or matured past Snapchat, Tik Tok or Instagram, who search significant connections and life experiences. As our metrics aren’t based mostly on display screen time, we didn’t need to construct options to maintain folks on their telephones. We’re satirically an app that encourages you to get off your telephones. Buddy has rethought find out how to construct a social app, like Reddit did – an informational useful resource of information you truly need to see and profit from. Buddy is a buddies solely community…a community of pals.”
Wright added, “Think about it’s Saturday morning, and planning spontaneously with shut pals who’re already in on a Buddy. As a substitute of a feed or group chat, Buddy turns into your real-time, invite-only map for shared experiences—no infinite scrolling, no strain to put up, simply pure, shut connections.”
How Buddy works
For example, Wright mentioned you’ll be able to drop a “secret spot” to begin the day. You’ll be able to set it at a favourite breakfast place, tagging it with a observe, “Killer espresso and no line earlier than 10 a.m.”
This auto-deletes after 24 hours, so it’s only a short-lived tip between pals, creating an unique, in-the-moment really feel. Except it’s so scorching you resolve to put it aside, altering the gatekeeper mentality. All this with out being served advertisements, or different options which can be designed to maintain you glued to your display screen.
Buddies can add to any loop in actual time. All through the day, pals close by add their very own Spot updates: one finds a road vendor with classic vinyls, whereas one other drops a “Meet right here” spot at a quiet lakeside picnic space. Every Spot comes with a fast message and disappears by the top of the day (until somebody desires to save lots of the spot for future reference), leaving no path, simply time-sensitive suggestions you truly need.
And Buddies can share standing with out an excessive amount of noise. Buddy’s Loop function lets every pal examine in with easy standing updates like “On my means,” or “Leaving in 5!”—fast, purposeful indicators with out the necessity for full messages or explanations.
It’s additionally has built-in privateness and exclusivity. Buddy solely exhibits updates to these in your community, so it’s like having a personal social map the place everybody’s intentions align with what you need to do collectively.
And it disappears. Inside 24 hours, all of the Spots, Loops, and messages from the day disappear. There’s no feed to revisit, no content material saved ceaselessly, simply the reminiscence of an ideal day shared.
And with out giving an excessive amount of away, Wright mentioned Buddy is creating AI-powered, location-specific actions that assist make your days extra adventurous and enjoyable — serving to you and your folks get to know your metropolis, and getting you off your telephone and experiencing firsthand.
Wright mentioned the corporate is concentrated on making a non-toxic setting on Buddy. This concerned intensive person analysis and information science, guaranteeing the app makes customers really feel protected, linked, and free from the standard social pressures discovered on different platforms.
In contrast to conventional social media apps, Buddy relies on a personal community and has no public profiles, likes, or follower counts. Customers don’t have to fret concerning the nervousness of engagement metrics, nor do they really feel pressured to look a sure means in entrance of the digicam, for approval. The app facilities on real-time, location-based interactions which can be purposeful and non permanent—permitting customers to share significant updates, not curated personas. Ultimately, the corporate will seemingly combine a device like GGWP, which makes use of AI to look at communications for toxicity.
The workforce has 10 folks and it’s rising. The app debuted in beta kind within the iOS app retailer in Might and it’s accessible to beta customers. The waitlist is open now, and customers can reserve their handles and obtain updates earlier than the large launch in 2025.
Apart from Willits and Zampella, the traders embody Paul Reim of Reim Advisors.
