As social media has evolved from a place to connect with friends into large-scale entertainment platforms, a startup called Yope is quietly building what it believes will be the future of online connection: social networking with no algorithms, no ads, and no public content.
Yope’s app, now backed by a $12.3 million seed round led by Northzone, is taking on tech giants like Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram by building a social platform centered on what it refers to as “micro communities” — or small groups where friends and family interact in private, sharing photos, videos, messages, and soon, playing games.
The idea of building algorithm-free, private social media is not new, but few apps have managed to scale without the addition of creator content to keep users engaged. Yope hopes to change that by encouraging connections between real-world friends, making it as much a communication tool as a place to share photos or life updates.
On Yope, accounts are private by default, and there’s no algorithmic feed. It’s also not supported by advertising, instead focusing on developing a premium, subscription-based experience for power users.
Bahram Ismailau, Yope’s London-based co-founder and CEO, says the team saw the potential for a new type of social network after conducting over 100,000 interviews — aided by AI tools — to better understand how young people around the world were using social networks. They found that around 30% were using what are often called photo dump or “spam” accounts, where users share more candid photos with a smaller group of real-life friends.
Meanwhile, many people don’t share anything publicly, relying instead on messaging to keep up with friends.
“[Young people] don’t have any place to self-express if they are not ready to be an influencer,” Ismailu pointed out in an interview with TechCrunch. Yet teens still want to do so; they just want more privacy.
“We found this big opportunity to create a new space for young people to be social. We called it Yope, and it’s an AI-native social platform for young people and the next generation.”
He clarified that the team doesn’t believe in using AI to create content; rather, it sees AI as a tool that can help create better connections. That includes using AI to create mini-games that you can play with your friends, a feature expected to launch in about a month. It also aims to leverage AI to help users meet up in real life, perhaps by buying tickets to an event, or finding a restaurant or bar where they can watch a football game.
On Yope, users create their own profiles by sharing photos, which can be turned into cut-out stickers. Instead of being organized into albums, the photos are displayed in a collage-like, almost chaotic arrangement across each user’s “wall.” Soon, Yope users will be able to further customize their space by adding their interests, favorite music, and the mini-games, as well as customizing the look and feel with colors and wallpapers of their choosing.
The idea recalls Myspace, where users once carved out their own place on the web, and customized it to reflect their personalities.
The app also heavily borrows from existing social platforms, offering what are now-standard features like in-app messaging, recaps of top moments (Yope’s are created by AI), and lock screen widgets that showcase your friends’ photos. During onboarding, the app walks users through setting up its various features and granting the permissions it needs to access their photos and find their friends, encouraging them to add connections and start private chats.
The combination of features appears to be working — Yope now has nearly 15 million registered users, who have collectively shared between 10 million and 20 million pieces of content daily, including individual photos, videos, or stickers. Those metrics suggest regular use. Ismailu claims more than 50% of Yope’s users open the app at least five days per week, essentially making them power users.
And it’s not just young people adding their friends. Ismailu says around 20% of active users have invited an older family member to join them on the app.
The usage attracted investor attention, Ismailu says, as Northzone approached the company, not the other way around. Northzone, which has backed other consumer apps like Spotify and Klarna, led the $12.3 million round, with participation from Inovo, Redseed, and Geek Ventures. The round brings the company’s total funding to $20 million. (Yope is the result of two prior pivots — TechCrunch covered an earlier version of the company. The current version has been in development for roughly two years.)
“Yope is a fresh, empowering and safe take on social media where the users are in full control of their experience in contrast to the predatory practices of Meta, TikTok or X,” said Pär-Jörgen Pärson, Partner at Northzone, in a statement. “We are very excited to partner with Bahram, Paul [Rudkouski, co-founder] and their team to build the service far beyond the current millions of users and half a billion moments shared.”
The funding will be used to further develop the product, grow the team — now around 35 people — and establish an office in the United States.
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