BeReal
Alexis Barreyat
One daily notification, 2 minutes to post: BeReal went from France to a €500M sale.
BeReal
Revenue
€500M
Acquired by Voodoo
Audience
40M+ users at its peak
Launched
2020
01Started from
Where it started
Former video producer at GoPro, who co-founded BeReal with Kévin Perreau.
- Tech level
- Non-technical (the team built it in Swift/Kotlin)
- Starting money
- Not disclosed
- How it was built
- Co-founded; native iOS and Android apps built around one daily notification, with viral growth on US campuses.
- Funding
- $30M raised (a16z + Accel, ~2022), then acquired by Voodoo in June 2024 for ~€500M / $537M.
- Tools
- native iOS/Android development
02Journey
The journey
2020
BeReal launches
An anti-filter social network: each day, at a random time, you get 2 minutes to post an unedited photo.
On campus
Viral growth
The app spreads across US campuses, reaches #1 in social networking in several countries (US, Japan, France) and wins an App Store Award.
~2022
$30M raised
a16z and Accel invest $30M. At its peak, BeReal has 40M+ users.
June 2024
Sold to Voodoo
French company Voodoo buys BeReal for ~€500M ($537M). Monetization stayed weak: the exit came from the sale, not revenue.
03Lessons
What you can take from it
- 01
One strong ritual (a notification, 2 minutes) can be your whole product.
- 02
Virality isn't retention: plan how users come back and how you'll earn money.
- 03
Dense, connected groups like campuses spread an app fast: start there.
Figures come from public sources (press, the founders’ own posts) and are sometimes self-reported.
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