Roger Gets $1 Million Investment Led By Social Capital to Reinvent Phone Calls
Dear Friends,
We are excited to share with you the news of our seed round of $1 million, led by Social Capital.
We believe that Chamath Palihapitya, the founder and CEO of Social Capital, and his team will bring unparalleled experience to Roger, having built and grown behavior-changing products such as Facebook, AIM and Winamp. Other investors in this round include current and former Spotify executives John Bonten, Emily ffrench Blake, Tim Sparks, Sophia Bendz, Sriram Krishnan and Gary Liu. We are absolutely thrilled to have all of them on board with us.
Chamath and his team bring unparalleled experience to Roger, having built and grown behavior-changing products such as Facebook, AIM and Winamp. We are absolutely thrilled to have them aboard with us.
Just like ourselves, Chamath believes there is a void in the way we communicate today. In his words, “Phone calls are declining as communication increasingly moves to messaging, but texting lacks nuance and context.” Our goal with Roger is to bring people closer together through an intimate yet flexible medium for communication — the personal nature of voice calling combined with the convenience of text messaging.
“Phone calls are declining as communication increasingly moves to messaging, but texting lacks nuance and context.”
This investment will help fuel the development of our growing voice communication platform. Beyond just building a global product, however, by removing obstacles like distance, time-zones, and busy schedules, our mission is to inspire a global movement that gets people talking more. The future we envision is one where we can have full conversations with anyone, anywhere.
Having just launched last month, we’ve been completely overwhelmed by the response we’ve gotten so far, such as The New York Times touting Roger as “a 21st century walkie-talkie”. Since then, Roger has already been used by people from more than 60 countries, including Japan, Qatar, Brazil, India, USA, UK, Sweden, France.
Apart from its cross-border appeal, it is heartening to know that our attention to design, simplicity, and accessibility has also resonated well with communities that are often overlooked in today’s consumer technology space, such as people with motor or visual impairments.
We are energized by confidence from our investors and excited about some great reviews so far. As we continue building the future of voice communication, the most important aspect is you, the community. Thank you for your feedback, your support, and of course, your conversations.
We’re only getting started.
