Qeepsake, a New York-based family journaling app, has raised $2 million in seed funding. Founded in 2015, Qeepsake sends its users daily questions via text or push notifications to encourage them to reflect on their day, children, parenting and more. Text, photo and video responses are then automatically organized into digital journals in Qeepsake’s app.
The app was founded by two parents, Jeff and Stephanie McNeil, who wanted to create a private and secure service that would store their memories and remind them to stay on top of saving fleeting moments. The idea came from Stephanie and Jeff’s experience raising four young children at the time and feeling like they didn’t have the time or help in saving the memories that mattered most to them.
Qeepsake uses simple prompts to help parents save memories that would otherwise be missed. Users also have the option to turn these memories into custom-printed Qeepsake Books. To date, Qeepsake says it has more than 700,000 registered users and has helped parents save over 50 million memories.
Once you sign up for the app, you’re asked to add your child’s name or nickname to create a journal for them. You have the option to add more journals for your other children, as well. From there, you’re asked how many prompts you want to receive in a day and what time you want to receive them. You also can decide if you want to receive prompts for specific holidays, such as New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Christmas and more. When you’re all set up, you’ll start receiving daily prompts.
The app is free to join, but also offers two paid memberships to users who want to unlock more features. The company’s Qeepsake Plus membership, which costs $47.88 per year, gives users access to unlimited entries and photos, up to two questions per day texted to your phone, the ability to answer previous questions and more. The membership also gives users the ability to sync the app with their social media accounts. Once you sync your social media accounts, you can add your posts on Instagram and Facebook to your Qeepsake journal. In addition, you can choose to skip questions and send in any photo and story to create a spontaneous journal entry.
The company’s Qeepsake Premium membership, which costs $95.99 per year, gives users the ability to add their spouse, partner, grandparent, sister, friend, nanny, daycare teacher or neighbor to contribute to their journal. The premium membership is designed to capture your family’s journey from every perspective and is the only membership that includes Qeepsake video.
In addition to the funding announcement, Qeepsake also announced the appointment of Tracy Cho as its new CEO. Cho told TechCrunch that Qeepsake plans to explore new monetization opportunities over the next few years. The company also plans to pilot a few partnerships to introduce relevant parenting products and services.
The company’s seed funding round was led by LaunchCapital and included participation from Techstars, Right Side Capital and other strategic angels. Cho says Qeepsake will use the funding to invest in its marketing and engineering teams. Cho also notes that Qeepsake is aiming for “radical growth” in the next three years, as the company acknowledges that technology has evolved since the app’s founding seven years ago.
“Qeepsake was founded in 2015 to make it easier for new parents to document their journey,” Cho told TechCrunch. “And we’re proud to have developed a large and loyal user base. But technology has evolved a lot since then and Qeepsake needs to evolve in order to reach more parents. Consumers’ expectations of products they use every day have risen, and we want the product to be more personalized to each parents’ journey. For example, today, every parent gets the same set of questions. There is a lot of work we can do to tailor those questions based on how parents interact with us.”
Cho also said the company believes Qeepsake can be used beyond those first few years of a child’s life, and that the app can grow alongside a child with the purpose of being turned over to them once they’re old enough to continue journaling on their own. She sees Qeepsake as an app that can help a family write a story that is passed on through generations.
With this latest investment, Qeepsake aims to reach more parents, increase engagement with a more personalized user experience and grow subscription revenues.
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