Founder Keith Teare says he is interested to buy assets of just.me- report

By Nicel Jane Avellana

Nov 15, 2013 11:34 PM EST

Keith Teare said he is interested to buy the assets of just.me, the mobile messaging platform he founded. In an interview with TechCrunch, Teare said the sale was prompted by two major issues faced by the startup. The first factor was the fact that just.me obtained part of its initial funding from Hercules Technology Growth Capital in the form of debt worth USD 1.5 million. The debt plus having hundreds of thousands of users on the platform placed the startup on the pretraction stage which made raising more funds impossible, Teare said. Thus, just.me's coffers have run empty and the company won't be able to pay back its debt or cover expenses.

Teare said just.me's assets would be sold separately. The startup needs to get more than USD 1.3 million for the sale or Hercules Technology will get the money. The five assets that just.me has put up for sale include the product and infrastructure, the firm's physical assets, a non-exclusive license to the source code, the just.me domain and a patent application for an advertising system that uses direct messages to connect brands and consumers.

Teare also told TechCrunch that he intends to win the bid for everything. The report took that to mean that Teare was hoping to raise money for a new firm which would not be encumbered by the debt. The new company would then purchase just.me's assets so it could continue operating the platform. However, the report said Teare needed to undertake a real sale to prove that he's not just after a sweetheart deal. He also needs to hold the auction in case he won't be able to raise the funds.

According to data obtained from CrunchBase, just.me was able to raise a total of USD 2.75 million in funding. Investors included Archimedes Labs, Google Ventures, True Ventures and Khosla Ventures, among others.

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