Friend-making app investors include LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner

There are countless apps available to find a date, but what about new friends? GirlCrew, a platform for women to make new friends, today launched its app in the US, coinciding with International Women’s Day to provide women the opportunity to connect with like-minded women and expand their community of friends.

The social network has raised a seed round of almost $1 million from investors, including LinkedIn chief executive Jeff Weiner, Wrigley CMO Orla Mitchell, Reddit director of data science Joe Gallagher, Aegis Corporate Strategy managing director Hazel Hutchinson, PCH chief executive Liam Casey, and Enterprise Ireland, Europe’s third largest seed investor. Enterprise Ireland is also hosting GirlCrew along with nine other Irish tech companies this weekend at SXSW Interactive. The funding will allow GirlCrew to expand across the US city by city, with thousands of women already on waiting lists to get the app.

Harnessing the soaring demand for friendship and community, GirlCrew has tapped into a market; facilitating friendship in person, even in an ever-digitized era.  First dating moved online, now friend making is going online.

GirlCrew has created a unique platform, available on iOS, Android and desktop, focused on connecting women for friendship and chats.  Although a digital community, its aim is to facilitate in-person friendships, offering an additional channel in which to do so – find a group of girls to travel with, meet for coffee, start a business. Anything is possible with ‘the crew’.  Members can participate in online group chats and offline events such as brunch, hikes or nights out.

GirlCrew’s three female co-founders — Elva Carri, Pamela Newenham and Aine Mulloy — are passionate about enabling women to make friends, network in a social and professional capacity, seek advice and share knowledge. Harnessing the soaring demand for friendship and community, they have tapped into a new market, facilitating friendship in person, even in an ever-digitized era.

The idea came about one Friday night when Elva Carri wanted to go dancing, but her friends were unavailable.  She put out a call for some platonic dancing friends on Tinder and quickly garnered more than 100 enthusiastic matches.  A ‘Tinder Crew’ was born, which later transformed into GirlCrew. Having gained lots of new friends and a jam-packed social calendar, Elva was going to need help. She teamed up with Aine Mulloy and Pamela Newenham and the three co-founders began growing GirlCrew groups in cities all over the world.

Pamela Newenham, co-CEO of GirlCrew said, “We believe real friendships happen in person, however sometimes you need a nudge and an extra channel in order to meet these new like-minded people. So many people have either moved to a new city, or have found themselves at a different life stage to their friends, either because their friends are getting married, settling down etc. As a result, they need new friends, but making friends as an adult can be hard.”

GirlCrew operates through an app available on iOS and Android, and a desktop platform (www.girlcrew.com). Women simply join the group for their city, such as Austin, Los Angeles, New York or San Francisco, and there they can see what events are happening, read posts and comments from other members, write posts themselves and create events. They can also join GirlCrew topic groups such as Travel, Careers, Entrepreneurs, Fashion & Beauty, Fitness & Wellness, Bloggers, Dating Advice and Staying In. Within the groups, members share tips, advice and knowledge on everything from getting a new job to finding a good restaurant for a first date.

About GirlCrew

GirlCrew is a platform for women to make new friends. Not keen on going to a concert solo? Find a crew with us. Want to book a vacation but your friends are all coupled up? Find a group of girls to travel with. Whatever you can dream up, you can do with the crew. Members can participate in online group chat and offline events, and many friendships have formed.

Download the app: https://www.girlcrew.com