Genies secured $3 million in financing from investors, including New Enterprise Associates, CAA Ventures, Foundation Capital, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Trinity Ventures, Macro Ventures, TGZ Capital, Management 360, and Worldwide Wes.
The Genies app allows users to create personalizable, expressive “look-alike” emojis that react to relevant daily happenings in real-time, ranging from breaking news (politics, sports, pop culture) to cultural holidays (Hump Day, Sunday Funday, National Pet Day, etc.). The app is preloaded with hundreds of thousands of body, facial and style combinations for users to create mini clones of themselves that interact with their friends’ Genies, and can be shared via iMessage, Facebook Messenger, Instagram direct message, Snapchat and SMS. According to the company, a user’s Genie reacts to pieces of news around 10–15 times per day by changing its expression, outfit, environment and props through the startup’s in-house animation AI platform.