Community

Community offers a message-based service where celebrities, influencers, and musicians can directly engage with their fans via text messages, photos, videos, and voice messages. Initially launched as Shimmur in 2017, the business had raised roughly USD 7 million during 2015-2017. However, it did not succeed, leading to the relaunch of Shimmur as Community in 2018, with the support of Hollywood talent manager Guy Oseary and famous actor and venture capitalist Ashton Kutcher.

Community was launched in July 2019 and has multiple celebrities, politicians, and artists (“community leaders”), such as Jennifer Lopez, Barack Obama, Kerry Washington, the Jonas Brothers, and Jake Paul using the platform to communicate with fans privately. Community leaders will be given a phone number which they can use to communicate directly to one or many fans based in North America without advertisements or algorithms. The platform’s pricing is based on audience size, where community leaders pay a monthly fee ranging from less than USD 100 to several thousand. Community leaders can monetize by using the platform to sell merchandise bundles, rally the fanbase, and leverage the direct communication tool to promote shows and projects.

By January 2020, the company had amassed around 500 community leaders, of which 25% were prominent celebrities with large audiences, and the rest were creators, athletes, authors, entertainers, and public figures, with over 200 million Community texts sent. As of August 2020, the company claims that the number of community leaders has increased to 2,000, exchanging 2 million texts daily (celebrity and fans collectively), and as of September 2020, it has almost 20 million members on its platform. However, in June 2022 , the company reportedly laid off ~40 employees due to adverse market conditions.

Funding and financials

In its last funding round (April 2021), the company raised USD 40 million from Salesforce Ventures.