Internet and media group IAC has purchased Confide, the US-based developer of an encrypted messaging app, for an undisclosed amount, enabling internet technology group Alphabet to exit, TechCrunch has reported.
Confide’s online platform provides encrypted end-to-end mobile communication, automatic self-deleting messages and anti-screenshotting technology.
The company was merged with Teltech, the IAC-owned developer of a mobile app designed to stop spam phone calls, in December 2020. The deal included the acquisition of Confide’s intellectual property and technology but its employees did not move to IAC.
Confide had raised at least $3.5m of funding since it was founded in 2013. It collected $1.9m in a 2014 seed round led by WGI Group that also featured GV, the corporate venturing subsidiary of Alphabet then known as Google Ventures.
Lakestar, Marker, First Round Capital, SV Angel, Lerer Hippeau (then Lerer Ventures), Tuesday Capital (then CrunchFund), BoxGroup and private investors Jeremy Stoppelman, Doug Ellin and Billy Bush.
WGI Group, First Round, SV Angel, Tuesday Capital, Marker, angel investor Howard Lerman and undisclosed others added $1.6m to the round in a 2016 extension.