9count, maker of Wink and new dating app Summer, scores additional funding

Alex Hofmann once served as Musical.lys president, overseeing the North and South American markets for the TikTok precursor, then leaving shortly after the app exited to Chinese tech giant ByteDance in 2017. But unlike traditional swipe-based dating apps, Summers differentiator is its grid that displays many users at once -- an experience meant to more closely mimic the way it feels to walk into a crowded space in real life, like a bar or a party, for example. When he showed these figures to current investors, they wanted to double down on the apps growth.The company plans to use a large portion of the new investment to fuel marketing efforts for Summer after it launches on Android next month. Wink was the largest chunk of this with over 15 million lifetime downloads.Alex and Joe are building a next-generation social application company at 9count, consolidating disparate products under one banner, with one team to find what works for the next generation, said Hans Tung, managing partner at GGV Capital, a 9count board member and early investor in Musical.ly. We realized that very few products can serve a larger audience and bring them joy and happiness," Hofmann says.Correction, 8/23/22, 12:503 PM ET: The total raise to date was $27.5M and the Series A was $21.5M with an additional $6M extension.