Having secured early stage funding that raises its value to over 1 million euros, the Greek startup Nup Technologies sets its sights on the USA with the aim of expanding its audio social network there exclusively for students.
The plan seems very ambitious, but the application developed by nup technologies has already gone through a successful course in our country. “Today, the beta version of nup has more than 3,000 active users, who spend an average of more than 3.5 hours on the application,” he said. Capital.gr the co-founder of Nup Technologies, Themis Drakonakis, who was at “30 under 30” list of the Greek edition of Forbes in 2019.
But what exactly is nup? “In short, it is an audio chat and messaging application aimed exclusively at students, meaning that in order to register, one has to confirm one’s student status. In the nup, users can participate in live audio group chats in order to connect and to meet other students, from different schools, with whom they are in a similar phase of their lives, have common interests and concerns “, explains Mr. Drakonakis.
In other words, this is a social network which, however, does not work in the logic of profiles and followers, but is closer to the metaverse, which seems to be the future of social networking. “Nup users do not have a profile photo but an avatar which represents them in a digital student universe, offering them more freedom” underlines Mr. Drakonakis.
Plans for the USA
The task of expanding into the US market is particularly difficult, but the Nup Technologies team has learned the hard way. As Mr. Drakonakis explains together with Sotiris Kaniras and Konstantinos Reppas as they have a course with many changes, but also many “no”.
The beginning was made with the project “Self’it”, a mobile social network that allowed its users to share their favorite moments with people who are in the same place at the same time. “Self’it” won the Famous for a Reason competition along with a cash prize. Despite the distinction, the project never managed to reach investment interest. Then, together with the company HANGOVER MEDIA, the founders of which had 10 years of experience with the student public through neolaia.gr, they launched UNIpad, for a communication application between students attending common Courses.
Simultaneously with UNIpad, the nup was launched, which has secured important collaborations in recent years. Meanwhile, the company’s founders were seeking funding to expand abroad. “The specific process was quite difficult as, at least in Greece, there were no corresponding examples of investments in the highly demanding consumer media market, with the result that we did not find a response”, says the co-founder of Nup Technologies.
The investment finally came from Realize Tech Fund II, with a pre-seed funding and now the Nup team is packing its bags for the other side of the Atlantic.
Source: Capital
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