Peep, a mobile app that lets groups quickly and privately share photos, announced today that it has completed a $3.7 million seed round led by private investors. The investors include: Bill Grabe, Advisory Director at General Atlantic; Bob Jones, Chief Operating Officer at Peep and a former Microsoft Executive; Scott Jamison, entrepreneur and Chief Product Manager at Peep; Chuck Tannen, an early investor in Priceline and former President of Target Communications Corp; and several principals at Ellington Management Group. Peep will be available in beta later this month, with general availability expected by early fall. The app is free, and will initially be available on iOS.

Peep is designed to allow groups, large or small, to share their photos with whom they want to in real time. Rather than publish photos to a stream with followers-the current solution offered by Facebook, Instagram, and others-Peep will facilitate quick and seamless sharing by enabling users to intuitively swipe their photos to a private, shared gallery, called a peep. A peep can be created and used to exchange photos at events in real time-a rock concert, wedding, party, etc.-or with groups of friends or family anywhere. These shared galleries are private by default and can only be joined by request or invitation. A second sharing option will allow for invisible, 'secret' peeps, where access is granted by invitation only.

'Just like other platforms have done for group texting, Peep will make sharing photos with select groups quick, private, easy, and great fun,' said Scott Howard, founder and CEO of Peep. 'Not only are we starting this company with the goal of changing the clunky, inconvenient, and often all too public photo sharing options available today, but we're doing it with an all-star team that knows how to build a more private social platform with the ability to scale.'

Peep utilizes several key technologies to power its new and refined method of private photo sharing. Peep's proprietary technology includes numerous ways to facilitate real-time photo sharing and gallery views, control access to events and photos, and preserve image quality. Dan Henry, Peep's CTO and patent attorney, has developed a patent portfolio that includes several pending applications, with several more in the pipeline.

'Everyone involved is excited by Peep's potential,' said Bob Jones, Chief Operating Officer of Peep. 'The fact that the seed round is oversubscribed is a testament to that enthusiasm.'

To further drive innovation, the company's founders have partnered with BlueMetal Architects, designers and architects of applications for leading Fortune 500 companies, to create a platform that optimizes both security and scalability. This is a creative, new approach to app design, in which a seasoned executive team partners with experienced software architects to create a solution that is built for growth out of the gate.

The photo-sharing category has shown explosive growth over the past several years. According to Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers (KPCB), over 1.8 billion photos are uploaded and shared every day, up from approximately 300 million photos a day in 2012.

Peep also announced that founder and CEO Scott Howard, Chief Operating Officer Bob Jones, Chief Product Manager Scott Jamison, Bill Grabe Advisory Director at General Atlantic, John Trimble, Chief Revenue Officer at Pandora, and Liam Spaeth, CEO and Chairman of BlueMetal Architects, have joined its advisory board. Former Unilever director and strategy consultant Paul DiPrato will serve as CMO, and Mark Fernberg, a former Sony Music and TV Guide executive will serve as CFO.

About Peep

Peep is a private real-time photo-sharing platform that lets groups see and save all their photos whether they are together at the same event or apart. Easy, instant, and insanely fun, Peep lets you choose who has access to your photo stream, and gives you the kinds of networking functions that let you share whatever you want with whomever you want without having to take any unnecessary and cumbersome steps. Peep is based in Norwalk, CT, which is cooler than you'd think, and was founded by a group of technology veterans and entrepreneurs.