UPDATED 21:15 EDT / APRIL 30 2015

NEWS

Circa news app on the market after it fails to raise a new round

Circa 1605 Inc., the makers of the Circa news app are said to be on the market after the company failed to raise a new round of venture capital.

According to a report from Forbes the San Francisco-based staff of 20 were informed of the situation at a meeting Thursday afternoon.

“This isn’t a ‘sell the assets’ only situation,” Chief Executive Officer Matt Galligan is reported to have said. “This is an acquisition process, and we’re talking with a number of interested parties.”

“One possibility is that we keep the brand. Another is that we apply our tech know-how to a different brand, or perhaps we integrate everything we’ve learned about the space and built so far in a way that the unique spirit of Circa lives on in another product… Our intent is to find the right partner to keep growing this idea.”

According to a separate report from The Wall Street Journal the company confirmed by email that it “is in talks with a number of different companies to acquire the company as a whole.”

Circa has raised around $5 million previously through a combination of convertible notes and seed rounds.

Really, in this market?

Circa is not a bad app on the surface, and it may potentially find a buyer who might be keen to intergrate the app into a broader product portfolio.

But that said, if you can’t raise a round in a market that throws around money like confetti at a wedding, there’s something seriously wrong with your company, particularly one that counts decent venture capital firms among its investors.

Without having the background numbers its difficult to estimate what the fundamental problem with Circa is, but certainly the app isn’t breaking any records in either the Apple App Store or the Google Play stores, so maybe it just came down to a product that not enough people wanted?

Previous investors, and those who are likely about to lose their investment include Advancit Capital, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Alex Bard, Menlo Ventures, Quotidian Ventures, and various others.


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