One year ago, Wafer Messenger was officially launched on the market after having successfully raised over €1.000.000. The company, incorporated in Delaware (USA) in January 2015, closed a first Seed Investment Round for 140,000€ and raised 900,000€ at the closing of the Post-Seed Investment Round in April 2017, just five months before hitting the market!
In only a half year after its official launch on the market Wafer Messenger surpassed 600,000 installs worldwide and is increasingly expanding in popularity since then. The team behind Wafer Messenger has grown from 4 to 11 full-time employees, and 3 interns had the chance to rotate within the company over the past 12 months.
Back in 2015, co-founders Simone La Torre and Rob Llanes shared the feeling that something really crucial was lacking in a market swarming with look-alike messaging apps so they came up with a communication platform where the entire philosophy revolved around the concept of going beyond limitations in terms of creativity, reach and privacy.
As Wafer Messenger reaches its first year milestone, it is interesting to trace the evolution that has occurred in the app from idea on paper to becoming the fast expanding communication platform it is today.
The final quarter in 2017 has been quite busy for Wafer Messenger. After its launch on the market for both iOS and Android on September 13th, the app topped the charts in the Lifestyle category in several countries. Wafer then underwent a series of improvements, which led to a first redesigning of the interface and message editors to make way for more creative expression.
At the beginning of 2018, the former logo was replaced by a new one, in the shape of a crown. The new logo made even clearer what Wafer Messenger stands for: in these times of growing mistrust for social media and messaging platforms, the focus, the crown, should be on the users. On Wafer Messenger it is the users who have absolute power in terms of creativity, reach and privacy. The rebranding in early 2018 also featured a change in the colors of the app, focusing more on cooler shades of purple and blue in order to give a more relaxed user experience.
2018 so far has also been the year of awareness about data privacy and the way tech companies make of user’s data - as a consequence to the “Cambridge Analytica” scandal and new GDPR rules in the EU. Ever since Wafer Messenger’s first steps, one of the biggest concerns of the company has been to grant its users absolute privacy, to the point that Absolute Privacy is now among its pillars. In the past few months, Wafer Messenger has been advocating for a fairer, more respectful treatment of user data and has committed to GDPR compliance for the EU and the rest of the global user base.
In only one year, Wafer Messenger has gone a long distance. CEO Simone La Torre says: “12 months ago our journey seemed impossible to predict. Yet today, with a rapidly growing user base, a sensationally committed team, an extensive investor network, and a plethora of new features and planned spin-off companies, success is no longer a mere dream; it’s a must. Best wishes to everybody revolving around Wafer and its ecosystem. Don’t forget your shades: bright days ahead.”
The team behind Wafer Messenger is looking ahead to further lift up user experience so it can continue to be an indispensable tool for those who don’t want to give up creativity while keeping their communications private.
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About Wafer:
Wafer is an international startup with headquarters in Luxembourg, and offices in the United States and India. The company officially launched its Wafer Messenger in September 2017 after successfully raising more than €1,000,000. Wafer Messenger is already installed on several hundreds of thousands of smartphones worldwide and the team works constantly to release new features at a very fast pace. Co-founder and chief executive Simone La Torre was born and raised in Italy, where he got a Masters degree in Space Engineering before earning a second Masters in Business Management in France. He has lived and worked in the Netherlands, the USA, and Luxembourg. Partner co-founder and chief operating officer Rob Llanes was raised in the USA, where he has a Masters degree in Engineering Management from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois. He has lived and worked in the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, and various cities within the USA.