Banjo is a highly visual app and website that allows users to experience breaking news and live events in real time through the eyes of the people who are there. Founded in 2011 by Damien Patton, Banjo is known as "The Live Internet", because it offers users an all access pass to breaking news and live events. The platform pulls public, geotagged content from Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Path, Google Plus, VKontakte and EyeEm, then indexes the world’s largest collection of social posts by location, time and content.
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Company information
Founded by Damien Patton in Redwood City, CA, Banjo launched on June 22, 2011. The app was originally conceived of as a tool for ensuring you never missed out on friends nearby. The app reached 500,000 users in six months and one million users in nine months. Banjo reached 3 million users shortly after the release of Banjo 3.0 on November 15, 2012.
In January 2014, Banjo announced a total overhaul of its app and mission. Banjo 4.0 featured a sleek, simplified, interface, where events became the centerpiece. The new version made it easier to discover and experience live events in real time. Banjo currently has 6 million users.
On March 8, 2014, at South by Southwest, Banjo launched a new feature called Banjo Rewind, which allows people to search past events and go back to specific moments in time. With Rewind, Banjo combines its real time location-based curation with a full historical view into what happened anytime, anywhere around the world. Founder and CEO, Damien Patton described it as, “TiVo for social media”. This feature coincided with the launch of Banjo’s 4.1 mobile app and the release of the long-awaited web version.
On March 13, 2014, Banjo announced it had completed a $16 million Series B round of financing. Balderton Capital led the round with participation from existing and new investors, including BlueRun Ventures andVegasTechFund, bringing Banjo’s total funding to $21 million.
Recognitions & awards
In 2013, Banjo was named one of the World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Local by Fast Company, and recognized as a top mobile developer by Google in 2012.