Trending: App ‘Yo’ is what’s up with investors

A messaging app that allows users to send the word “Yo” to friends has discovered fame and fortune.

SAN FRANCISCO: A messaging app that allows users to send the word “Yo” to friends has discovered newfound fame and fortune. San Francisco-based startup Yo, which got its start in Tel Aviv and moved to California after becoming a hit in Israel, boasted new backers as reports estimated its value as high as $10 million. Yo raised $1.5 million in an initial round of funding that included backing from Betaworks and Mashable founder Pete Cashmore, according to co-founder and chief executive Or Arbel. “The value of this round goes far beyond the dollar amount that we received,” Arbel said in a release. Betaworks explained in an online post that it was pumping cash into Yo due, in part, to a fascination with the potential of simple tools for single word smartphone notifications such as “yes” or “no.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 20^th, 2014.

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