Bluesky Announces Series A to Grow Network of 13M+ Users

Bluesky now exceeds 13 million users, the AT Protocol developer ecosystem continues to grow, and we’ve shipped highly requested features like direct messages and video. We’re excited to announce that we’ve raised a $15 million Series A financing led by Blockchain Capital with participation from Alumni Ventures, True Ventures, SevenX, Amir Shevat of Darkmode, co-creator of Kubernetes Joe Beda, and others.

Our lead, Blockchain Capital, shares our philosophy that technology should serve the user, not the reverse — the technology being used should never come at the expense of the user experience. Additionally, this fund has a uniquely deep understanding of our decentralized foundation and has extensive experience building developer ecosystems, so it’s a natural partnership as we continue to invest in the ATmosphere (the AT Protocol developer ecosystem). This does not change the fact that the Bluesky app and the AT Protocol do not use blockchains or cryptocurrency, and we will not hyperfinancialize the social experience (through tokens, crypto trading, NFTs, etc.). To ensure we and our users benefit fully from this expertise, partner Kinjal Shah will join our board. Kinjal shares our vision for a social media ecosystem that empowers the people who use it, and we are glad to have her support as we invest in driving the adoption of decentralized social.

With this fundraise, we will continue supporting and growing Bluesky’s community, investing in Trust and Safety, and supporting the ATmosphere developer ecosystem. In addition, we will begin developing a subscription model for features like higher quality video uploads or profile customizations like colors and avatar frames. Bluesky will always be free to use — we believe that information and conversation should be easily accessible, not locked down. We won’t uprank accounts simply because they’re subscribing to a paid tier.

Additionally, we’re proud of our vibrant community of creators, including artists, writers, developers, and more, and we want to establish a voluntary monetization path for them as well. Part of our plan includes building payment services for people to support their favorite creators and projects. We’ll share more information as this develops.

Bluesky’s open technology, the AT Protocol, makes a whole ecosystem of apps possible. We’re excited that developers have already begun building their own applications with totally different purposes from the Bluesky app. For example, Smoke Signal is an events app, Frontpage is a web forum, and Bluecast is an audio app (that includes karaoke with licensed songs)! We hypothesize that monetization strategies like subscriptions, domain-name registrations, and payments to creators will enable these independent apps to grow as well.

With every month that passes, the need for an open social network becomes more clear. We’re very excited about where we’re headed — we’re building not just another social app, but an entire network that gives users freedom and choice. Thank you for joining us.

What have we done since our last fundraise?

Since raising our seed round last year, we have:

• Grown Bluesky from an invite-only app with 1M users to an open app serving more than 13M people! We’ve welcomed millions of people from the United States, Brazil, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, and more.
• Launched federation for self-hosters and developers. Now there are over 1,000 other personal data servers (PDS) outside of Bluesky.
• Launched custom feeds, making algorithmic choice a reality. Now there are over 50k+ feeds on Bluesky.
• Invested heavily in anti-harassment tooling and Trust and Safety.
• Built labeling services and opened the ability for anyone to run foundational pieces of stackable moderation. Additionally, open-sourced Ozone, a moderation tool.
• Shipped highly-requested features like direct messaging, GIFs, and video.
• Pioneered novel features like starter packs to help communities find each other in a privacy-preserving way.
• Partnered with organizations like Buffer to add Bluesky integrations and Namecheap to sell domains.
• Announced $20k in developer grants and supported the growth of the ATmosphere through additional developer documentation, talks, and partnerships.
• Much more, including a new logo and a public web interface!

Traditional social media companies have enclosed the online commons, locked down their APIs to shut out independent developers, and deployed black box algorithms that leave us guessing. This era of old social is over — at Bluesky, we’re returning choice and power to you.