PHL Inno's weekly "Startup Spotlight" feature highlights founders and new businesses cropping up in the region.
The startup: Groopview, a video chat platform that synchronizes users' video for a seamless conversation.
Founded: 2017. The product launched in June 2021.
Home base: Philadelphia
Founder: The idea for Groopview came to Delmond Newton in 2017 when he was trying to watch shows on Nickelodeon with his nieces, who were in different locations. There were issues using the popular app, Houseparty, which allows multiple people to video chat simultaneously and watch a show.
Newton had an “a-ha moment,” jotted down the idea for synchronous video and later brought the idea to the engineers he worked with on his previous venture, streaming platform VidClout.
The product: Groopview is a video chat app that synchronizes video for all users on a call, no matter their network connection, so they see the same frames in real time. Users pull up videos on platforms like YouTube, then invite friends to join the watch party.
If one user has a slower network connection, Groopview adjusts to the lowest network connection using “heartbeat technology” so users stay synced.
Groopview doesn’t only do entertainment viewing for group video chats. The app can also use the front and rear cameras at the same time so users can show their faces and what they’re looking at simultaneously. Groopview’s product — QuickShow, developed in partnership with Samsung and Verizon — allows Realtors to show potential buyers properties without the buyer needing to come for an in-person showing.
Funding: The startup raised a $1 million seed round, Newton said, and is in the midst of raising a Series A.
The goal: Newton wants Groopview to be constantly innovating, adding new features and expanding to new industries in the same way it expanded to real estate. The company is seeking niche use cases to grow the business like customer service and the military. He likened the startup to the music industry.
“A record label stands out because it produces more hit records,” Newton said. “And we see ourselves the same way, if we're using that analogy. Our features are our records. And our new features are going to be so cool that we believe that our competitors will just be playing catch up.”
