Jack Dorseys Square acquires social media app Yik Yaks team
- Tuesday, April 25th, 2017
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Square, the mobile payment company of Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey, has allegedly acquired the engineering team behind the anonymous social media application Yik Yak for less than $3m.
According to a Bloomberg report, citing a person familiar with the matter, between five and 10 of Yik Yak’s engineers will join the San Francisco-based mobile payments company. However, Yik Yak’s CEO Tyler Droll will not be joining the Square team.
Square made its largest purchase back in 2014 when it bought food delivery startup Caviar for around $100m.
Atlanta-based Yik Yak was launched in 2013 by Droll and COO Brooks Buffington. Its smartphone app enables people to create, view and contribute to anonymous group chats within a five-mile radius. Users are also able to like or dislike each chat, dubbed ‘Yaks’.
Yik Yak reached a valuation of over $350m within a year of its launch, after securing $60m in funding from Sequoia Capital and other investors. Since these initial highs, the company has struggled however – facing several controversies surrounding bullying, harassment, racism, hate speech, sexism, and threats.