BeReal is in a real bind.
According to Business Insider, employees were told at a February all-hands meeting that the app had about ten months of runway left before running out of money. While BeReal has maintained a relatively low head count of 60 employees, its server costs are significant. Now, leadership is scrambling to make the app appealing to investors.
BeReal’s unique, in-the-moment photo-sharing feature transformed it into a cultural phenomenon at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Heralded as the “anti-Instagram,” the company reached a valuation of $600 million in 2022 after securing $90 million in funding that same year. But the app’s growth has since slowed, even after an attempt to diversify its appeal by adding new features in 2023.
According to internal metrics shared with Business Insider, BeReal currently has 40 million monthly active users and 25 million daily active users, up from 20 million in 2022. But sources said that jump is unimpressive in the eyes of investors and that the company was struggling to drum up interest in funding. Leadership also told employees that “We’re talking to some of the biggest tech companies in the world” about a potential acquisition. But if a solution doesn’t present itself soon, BeReal may be doomed — like the photos on the app — to disappear.
