Anonymous gossip app Secret only launched 45 days ago, but has already become a hit among Silicon Valley insiders. Now the startup behind it has raised $8.6m to spread the word to everyone else.

Secret launched as an iPhone app in the US and Canada in late January, but isn’t yet available for Android in those countries, or anywhere else in the world for any smartphone.

Its appeal rests on connecting people in social networks based on their phone’s Contacts – the same method used by messaging app WhatsApp – and then enabling them to share secrets anonymously within that network.

“When friends love your secret, it will be shared to their friends. If they love the post, it can reach even further,” explains the site’s FAQ. “When your secret travels beyond two degrees, it will be marked with your general location, like ‘California’.”



The company claims that it encrypts posts to ensure that even its own team can’t trace shared secrets back to their posters, while barring users from even seeing which friends are using Secret, to make it harder for them to guess the identities of specific posts.

In its first 45 days, Secret has become a hit within Silicon Valley circles, particularly for employees letting off steam about the technology companies they work for.

Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers and Fuel Capital are among the investors, along with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, actor Ashton Kutcher, former American footballer Joe Montana and Mashable founder Pete Cashmore.

“As the platform evolves, it becomes more clear that Secret truly shines in its ability to spark intriguing, meaningful and provocative conversations with unprecedented levels of authenticity,” claimed Secret in its announcement of the funding round.



The A-word is clearly a keen focus for the company. “Our vision is to create a world flowing with authenticity. Being more open with each other brings us closer together, builds understanding, and ultimately makes the world a better place,” it claimed.

“Our Series A funding enables us to curate a small, passionate team of artists and builders, listen closely to the community and continue to focus on the work in order to make it happen.”



Anonymous authenticity is a risky business for a startup like Secret, though, especially if its users start being more open with each other in potentially libellous ways, or confess to the kind of crimes that might persuade law enforcement officers to test those encryption claims.

It also currently looks a little insular: funded and blogged about by the people who use it, but yet to prove it can cross over to a mainstream audience. If the funding round helps Secret launch globally sooner rather than later, it may at least be able to start trying.

Secret has competition already: rival app Whisper, which launched in 2012, has raised a startling $54m of funding so far, including a rumoured $30m round in March this year. As yet, neither company has talked publicly about how they plan to make money from anonymous sharing.

• Would you really trust a ‘secret’ app to protect your secrecy?