Jagat, a location-based social community that focuses on real-life connections, surpasses 10M customers

Jagat, a social community that’s designed to get you out extra with your pals as an alternative of mindlessly scrolling in your cellphone, has surpassed 10 million customers globally. The situation-based social community, which launched earlier this 12 months in March, needs to assist individuals give attention to real-life connections and make mates.

The app, accessible on each iOS and Android, is basically a social map to your mates and actions close to you. Jagat options an interactive map interface that permits you to sustain with your pals  in real-time and uncover new individuals and actions round you. Jagat is considerably much like Snap-owned Zenly, a social map app that shut down last year.

The startup relies in Singapore and Indonesia, and was based by Jagat President Barry Beagen and CEO Loy Xing Zhe. The pair met in December 2021 when Beagen was advising the Authorities of Indonesia on insurance policies concerning the digital financial system and Zhe was engaged on a GameFi product targeted on web3, social and gaming. Beagen says he and Zhe each had the concept of constructing a social community.

“We had the same vision of taking on big tech and to really build something from Southeast Asia that could take on the world,” Beagen informed TechCrunch. “We were also tired of mainstream social apps that are becoming more passive and we were both really excited about exploring the world and places and finding spontaneous ways to meet new friends – whether it’s for a hike, for a local concert, for a pick-up basketball game or just for a long walk.”

The pair determined to construct a social community the place customers can create their very own areas and work together nearly with their avatars.

Your social map is what you see once you open Jagat, because it’s the place you see your pals’ places in real-time. It’s additionally the place you report the locations that you’ve got been to, and the place you’ll be able to faucet in your mates’ avatars and ship them a message, stickers or updates. Jagat sees the map as the first interface to find actions and other people round you. You’ll be able to see your pals’ standing updates in real-time to seek out out what they’re as much as.

Picture Credit: Jagat

The startup is at the moment constructing out a characteristic that goals to tackle Fb Teams by permitting customers to arrange native occasions and discover individuals with comparable pursuits. It’s additionally constructing a characteristic that permits you to discover past your area people by permitting you to find international communities.

“We want to bring back social in social apps – focusing on social networking and not media,” Beagen mentioned. “We want to be about people, not posts. We’re made for your close friends, for discovering new friends and for getting people out more in real life as opposed to scrolling for entertainment. We’re excited that other new emerging social apps are also taking on this challenge. The mainstream social media is no longer for making friends or connecting, but mostly passive consumption of entertainment. So we’re focused on features that allow users to share real-time unpolished updates in a fun way.”

Beagen says most lively customers verify the app round 3-4 occasions a day, and that most individuals need to discover out the place their shut mates and family members are as soon as they’re accomplished with faculty or work. As a substitute of getting to textual content a pal to see in the event that they’re shut by and need to seize dinner, the app helps you to see the place they’re.

Round 85% of Jagat customers are a part of GenZ. Since its launch, the app has topped charts in Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Spain, France and Singapore. Beagen says the app’s attraction has been common and that the startup will proceed to construct for the subsequent technology.

The startup closed a Sequence A funding spherical in October with participation from buyers in Southeast Asia, however declined to reveal the quantity of funding raised.

When it comes to the longer term, the startup needs to construct “the default app for the next generation,” Beagen mentioned. “We believe that social apps should fulfill their promise of making real genuine connections and getting people to connect in real life. In the meantime, we’re focused on building new exciting features and continuing to build our community. We also believe what we’re building, augmenting social experiences on a map, can power a new generation of creators and businesses worldwide.”