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After $35 million in funding, Secret is shutting down

After $35 million in funding, Secret is shutting down

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The anonymous sharing app Secret will soon be shutting down. First reported by Buzzfeed, a Medium post from CEO David Byttow confirmed the news. "After a lot of thought and consultation with our board, I’ve decided to shut down Secret," Byttow wrote. "Unfortunately, Secret does not represent the vision I had when starting the company, so I believe it’s the right decision for myself, our investors, and our team."

Launched in February 2014, Secret boasted more than 10 million downloads at its peak, and inspired broad interest in "anonymish" apps that would actively obscure users' identities. Only a month after launch, Secret raised $8.6 million from Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins, among other investors, a sign of the high hopes around the app. The app would go on to raise a full $35 million in funding.

Still, Secret struggled with decreased usage in recent months, falling out of iTunes top 1500 ranking by the end of 2014. In December, the app relaunched as a text-based chat platform in an attempt to regain momentum with users. The attempt appears to have been unsuccessful. TechCrunch is reporting that the company is down to only 10 employees, and the remaining employees are in talks to receive severance packages. Any remaining funds will be returned to investors.