A rival born in the wake of Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter is shutting down less than one year after raising a little over $1 million from a group of angel investors.
Legally known as Town Square Technologies, the Berkeley company was first known as T2 and then quickly rebranded as Pebble. Ultimately, it wasn't able to grow its user base fast enough despite the chaos and user exodus at X, as Musk renamed Twitter.
Co-founder and CEO Gabor Cselle announced the news on Pebble and said the network would shut down on Nov. 1.
"We're immensely proud of what our team and community have achieved. Pebble stood for purposeful growth, a deep commitment to safety, and fostering human connection," Cselle wrote in a Twitter-like thread on Pebble.
"We weren't growing fast enough to convince investors of a breakout," he added. "With many alternatives in the space, the challenge was even greater. We needed more investment and time to fully realize Pebble."
T2 officially registered with the state of California on Dec. 13, 2022, several weeks after Musk closed his $44 billion purchase of Twitter.
Pebble ultimately attracted 20,000 users, according to TechCrunch, which first reported the news of its shutdown, but never reached more than 3,000 daily active users. That fell to 1,000 daily users after it rebranded.
In January, T2 raised $1.1 million from more than a dozen angel investors including former Google executive Bradley Horowitz and Mercury co-founder and CEO Immad Akhund.
Pebble tried to establish itself as a safer, friendlier version of Twitter — a message which appeared to resonate with its small but loyal group of active users.
"Sad to see this wholesome place go... I wish you all the very very best <3," one user wrote on Tuesday.
