Altos Ventures, headquartered in Silicon Valley, has invested $2 million USD in Hyperconnect, the developer of live time video communication technology and the service host for the video messenger 'Azar.'
Hyperconnect has developed a very distinct client/server technology stack for WebRTC based real-time video/voice communication. It is very secure and reliable for various settings in 200 countries with very high quality video chat. The technology is built on P2P so the management cost is very low and is expected to be used in a range of different fields very soon.
'Azar' is a mobile messenger that lets you to make new friends and do video chat. After release it has grown rapidly, achieving over 12 million downloads around the world. It is also attracting millions of dollars in revenue already. As you can pick genders and countries, users who are interested in learning a new language are highly interested in this messenger and new markets like Southeast Asia, Latin America, Middle Eastern countries, and Turkey are showing great opportunity for further growth.
Hyperconnect was founded by Sang-il Ahn who used to be president of the Startup Club in Seoul University and has numerous experiences in other startup businesses. Other team members include Kang-sik Jung CTO of Seoul University Computer Engineering Program, and Hyun-tek Yong CSO from Pohang University Computer Engineering Program. They have been friends for over 10 years since they were students and decided to combine forces last March to start the company.
"As the use of smart phone increases and the cost of mobile networks decrease the future method of communication will pass the level of text and voice and reach to the use of video. Our cost-efficient high quality video communication technology will contribute to this 'hyper-connected' era," said Ahn.
CEO Han Kim of Altos Ventures said, "It is hard to find a team with very high capability as well as a concrete strategy, but Hyperconnect showed that they are the one. I was able to trust them more as I met them more and wanted to develop greater potential together."