F3, a Riga-based social app for Generation Z, has raised $3.9 million in seed funding from the Mamba dating network (with its investor Mail.ru Group) and Adfirst.vc. Alex Hofmann (former musical.ly president) and Marat Kichikov (GP at Bitfury Capital) joined the round as angel investors, among others.
The app allows users to send each other photos, videos and questions and then reply to them in a customised, media-rich format. The team behind F3 previously founded Ask.fm, a global ‘Q&A’ based social network with over 150 million users, which was acquired by IAC in 2014. With this new app, F3 has brought the same model to a younger generation — 85 percent of the audience is below 25.
Though the Latvian company describes the platform as a way to “find new friends” through “raw and real” chatting, there are safeguards against abuse and other negative effects associated with social media. The system includes automatic content moderation, explicit photo and video detection, profanity text filters, anonymity settings and controls, and the ability to report or block other users. “We see that our users create unique social circles of friends they've met only on F3, which reaffirms our conviction that Generation Z requires a different type of social network — one where they can socialise and make new friends just like in real life, where they form new communities and talk to each other in the same place where they post or consume content,” says Ilja Terebins, CEO and co-founder. Since its launch in 2018, F3 has attracted over 25 million users and reports that tens of thousands of new members join every day.
Photo: The F3 team
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