Lapse

Lapse is a British photo-sharing/social app, developed by Lapse Ltd. and co-founded in 2021 by brothers Ben Silvertown and Dan Silvertown. According to the company's own press materials (PR Newswire, Feb 27, 2024) and multiple secondary sources (Wikipedia, TechCrunch, Forbes), the idea originated when Ben Silvertown used a point-and-shoot film camera while backpacking in Vietnam and wanted to recreate that 'develop-later' experience digitally; he teamed up with his brother Dan to build Lapse. IMPORTANT DISAMBIGUATION NOTE: the research brief that prompted this profile stated the company was 'founded by Bunyamin Coskuner,' but this could not be corroborated by any source. Multiple independent, cross-verified sources (Wikipedia's 'Lapse (social network)' article, a Forbes interview, and Lapse's own Feb 2024 Series A press release distributed via PR Newswire) consistently and exclusively credit Ben and Dan Silvertown as co-founders, with no mention of a 'Bunyamin Coskuner' anywhere in Lapse's corporate materials or press coverage. A LinkedIn/GitHub search for 'Bunyamin Coskuner' turns up an unrelated software engineer based in Istanbul, Turkey (education: Bilkent University; employer: 'Weekend Games'), who does not appear to have any connection to Lapse. This profile therefore documents the well-sourced Silvertown-brothers founding story and flags the Coskuner claim as unverified/likely incorrect. Lapse launched on the App Store in September 2021 after raising a $1.4M pre-seed round, drawing roughly 10,000 beta users and a 150,000-person waitlist (per Wikipedia, citing TechCrunch). In December 2021 the company raised an $11M seed round (TechCrunch, Ingrid Lunden). The app initially mimicked a simple point-and-shoot camera, then pivoted toward a 'photo dump' journal format similar to VSCO. In June 2023 Lapse re-released with an invite-gated onboarding flow requiring new users to invite five friends before they could post -- a growth mechanic that drew criticism (a Better Tomorrow Ventures VC publicly called it a 'pyramid scheme' on X) but fueled explosive growth: per Appfigures data cited by TechCrunch, Lapse rocketed from ~118th to the #1 Overall app on the U.S. App Store by September 2023, peaking at 218,000 downloads in a single day in October 2023 and reaching roughly 1.2 million users. By late November 2023, TechCrunch reported downloads had fallen ~70% from that October peak (down to ~44,700/day by Nov 24, 2023), illustrating the classic 'growth-hack cliff' also seen at rivals Dispo and Poparazzi (the latter of which shut down). Despite the cooling download curve, Lapse closed an oversubscribed $30 million Series A on February 27, 2024, co-led by Greylock and DST Global Partners, with existing investors GV (Google Ventures), Octopus Ventures and Speedinvest returning, plus angel investors Naveen Gavini (former Pinterest Chief Product Officer), Soleio (designer/investor, ex-Facebook), Nima Khajehnouri (former Snap VP of Engineering) and Praveen Murugesan (former Uber Director of Engineering). Greylock General Partner Jacob Andreou, a former Snap Inc. SVP of Product & Growth, joined Lapse's board as part of the deal. The company said the app had organically hit #1 in both the US and UK App Stores in 2023 and that 100 million 'memories' were being captured on Lapse every month at the time of the raise; funds were earmarked for expanding engineering, product and design headcount. Total disclosed funding across the pre-seed ($1.4M), seed ($11M) and Series A ($30M) rounds is approximately $42.4M; no valuation figure was disclosed in any source reviewed. Lapse is frequently compared to BeReal, Dispo, Poparazzi and Locket as part of the 2022-2024 wave of 'anti-Instagram' authenticity-focused photo apps aimed at Gen Z, and its rise was explicitly cited by Business Insider (Nov 2023) as a competitive pressure that led Instagram to invest further in its own 'Close Friends' features. As of mid-2026, the app remains live on the App Store ('Lapse - Disposable Camera', 4.8 stars across ~118,000 ratings) and a student-press app review dated Nov 25, 2025 (California Baptist University's The Banner) describes the app's core friends-only journal, commenting and 'sending vibes' social features as fully intact, invite-only, and unchanged. This directly contradicts an uncited claim added to Lapse's Wikipedia article stating that on Nov 3, 2025 the company removed its social features due to photo-storage cost pressure and was weighing a shutdown; that Wikipedia passage carries no citation and the Wikipedia article itself is flagged for 'unclear notability' and possible undisclosed-paid editing, so this claim is treated here as unverified and likely inaccurate/outdated rather than fact, though it is noted for completeness. No subsequent funding round (e.g., a Series B) or acquisition was found in any source reviewed; claims of a large a16z-backed round could not be confirmed anywhere and are not reflected in this profile beyond this note. No named CEO title could be confirmed for either founder in the sources reviewed -- both Ben and Dan Silvertown are consistently referred to only as 'Co-Founder' in press materials, with Dan Silvertown serving as the more frequent company spokesperson in interviews (e.g., Forbes, Feb 2024).

Business model

Free-to-download consumer mobile (iOS) social/photo-sharing app that monetizes via future premium/creative features rather than advertising; company states it does not run ads or sell user data as of 2024-2025 public statements.

Not disclosed publicly; the app has historically been free with no ads and no confirmed subscription/in-app-purchase revenue line identified in press coverage. An in-app 'Lab' section offers editing/creative tools, a possible future monetization surface, but no confirmed pricing was found.