Veterans of the European startup scene, who’ve launched a number of shopper apps previously, are partly popping out of stealth Tuesday with a brand new app. On the face of it, Grouphug will merely generate memes from the archive of a gaggle WhatsApp chat. However, that masks a wider play.
Grouphug is led by Felix Petersen, probably the most skilled and seasoned B2C founders in Europe, who constructed the Amen and Plazes apps.
Right now, all customers can do on Grouphug is export the textual content from a gaggle WhatsApp chat and generate humorous photos from the content material.
However, that is only a taster of issues to come back. Underlying this easy train to accumulate beta customers is an app nonetheless in stealth mode. But Petersen hinted to TechCrunch that the corporate plans to launch a platform to generate extra worth out of WhatsApp teams utilizing generative AI.
“We suppose we’ve cracked AI humor. For now, Grouphug will create jokes primarily based on what occurred within the group. We flip your WhatsApp chats into memes. But then we now have different plans for it,” he informed TechCrunch. “There is that this world of group chats the place a lot of the issues occurring, like on Reddit or X, are performed in public. But the whole lot that’s in WhatsApp teams will not be a part of the general public web. That’s a chance.”
The startup has already raised a €1.5 million ($1.7 million) pre-seed spherical led by Berlin-based Blueyard VC, alongside Tiny VC, Charles Songhurst (a Meta board member), Atlantic Labs, and others.
Petersen is joined by Joseph Djenandji, who lately exited his well-known multi-channel journey model LostIn. The third founder is Matthew Balazsi, who has labored on AI and ML for the final 10 years.
