Exclusive: Times Internet Backed Murmur App Shuts Down

Delhi-based Murmur app, previously which went by the name Bluegape, has shut down.

The app used to curate content from popular blogs & news sites and serve them in bursts of 10 pieces. The content used to be a blend of photos, videos, GIFs, news, blogs etc and was showcased as a headline in a visual layout with links to the source.

There has been no updates on the app over the last few days. Murmur’s founder, Sahil Baghla, was not reachable for comments at the the time of publishing this story.

Two of the company’s investors have confirmed the development to Inc42.

According to sources close to the development, the company was also in talks with Times Internet for an acquisition. The deal, however, later fell apart.

Harshad Lahoti of ah! Ventures, said, “No doubt the company is going through a tough phase at the moment. But investors are still hopeful that it can be revived and our efforts are on in that direction. There is a lot of IP build into the company in the past 3 years of existence which is undoubtedly valuable. Besides Murmur is a world class app with outstanding 5 star reviews and huge following. While its no longer active, I am certain most of its users will come back if and when it’s relaunched.”

Murmur was also part of Google’s Launchpad Accelerator announced in December last year. The company had over 40+ employees.

In January 2014, bluegape, which use to run a fan merchandise store had raised $300K through LetsVenture. The company was doing a monthly revenue run rate of over 1 Crore, but had to put an end to the fan merchandise business due to copyright issues.

The team decided to pivot the business and launched a new platform just 15 days after it had announced the shutdown of its merchandise business. It launched itself as a platform where any one can make collaborative listicles with visuals, and people could add to the lists. The platform garnered over 28 Mn unique views and about 47 Mn sessions in small span of time.

The company, at that time had raised $200K in an angel round of funding led by Rudy Gopalakrishnan of Fidelity and ah! Ventures in April 2015. In August, it raised $600K from ah! Ventures, Rudy Gopalakrishnan of Fidelity and Times Internet. Later in November 2015, the company pivoted yet again to launch the Murmur app.

Bluegape was founded in August 2011 by Sahil Baghla and Ayush Varshney and was also part of TLabs Accelerator.