THE co-founder of travel search firm Skyscanner has backed an ad-free Scottish social media company in a new venture called Kindaba.
Gareth Williams, co-founder of Skyscanner, which was acquired by Chinese online travel agency Ctrip in a £1.4 billion deal, has invested an undisclosed sum in an equity stake in Edinburgh-based Kindaba, which allows customers to share content with each other on a social media platform without adverts.
His investment is leading the company’s £300,000 equity crowd-funding which will be used to scale the firm's user base and establish it in the emerging FamTech (family technology) sector over the next year.
The firm currently employs eight staff and has plans to recruit seven to grow their user base to 100,000 active users.
Kindaba describes itself as a "private Instagram feed with your family".
It said its Kindaba Families' monthly subscription will help preserve the "ad-free experience" and it insisted it has a commitment to privacy and data protection.
With a market worth £45 billion, the funding will be used to accelerate growth through product and business development, marketing and data analysis.
Mr Williams said: "The team is fantastic. Whatever the problem space, founders need to have that laser focus in order to stand a chance of getting to their destination.
"In my experience, the founders and the team they build are so important to the future success of their company."
Lizzie Brough, co-founder of Kindaba, said: "This investment will allow us to scale our customer outreach and bolster our development team so that we can continue to work smart and at speed developing the features our families are searching for."
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