Opal raises $4.3 million for its ‘digital well-being’ assistant for iPhone – TechCrunch

Many individuals need to develop higher screen-time habits, however don’t have a very good set of instruments to take action. A brand new startup, Opal, goals to assist. The corporate, now backed by $4.3 million in seed funding, has developed a digital well-being assistant for iOS that permits you to block distracting web sites and apps, set schedules round app utilization, lock down apps for stricter and extra targeted quiet intervals, and extra.

The service works by means of a VPN system that limits your entry to apps and websites. However in contrast to some VPNs in the marketplace, Opal is dedicated to not accumulating any private knowledge on its customers or their non-public looking knowledge. As an alternative, its enterprise mannequin is predicated on paid subscriptions, not promoting consumer knowledge, it says.

Timed with its public debut, Opal additionally in the present day introduced its preliminary financing in a spherical led by Nicolas Wittenborn at Adjacent, a mobile-focused VC fund. Different buyers included Harry Stebbings, Steve Schlafman, Alex Zubillaga, Kevin Carter, Thibaud Elziere, Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve, Alban Denoyel, Isai, Secocha Ventures, Speedinvest, and others.

The thought for Opal comes from Paris-based Kenneth Schlenker, a longtime technologist who beforehand based and offered an artwork market startup ArtList and later led mobility firm Hen’s enlargement in France.

Schlenker, who grew up in a small, quiet village within the Alps, says he received into expertise at a younger age.

“I type of received obsessed, like many people, by the potential of expertise and its wonderful energy of attraction — making connections, studying new issues, all types of unbelievable alternatives,” he explains. “However I’ve then spent the final 10 years and extra attempting to hunt a steadiness between this want for connection and this want for disconnection.”

In newer years, Schlenker got here to understand that others had been having the identical drawback, together with these outdoors the tech trade. That drove him to construct Opal, with the objective of serving to individuals higher obtain steadiness of their lives so they may reconnect with family members, spend time in nature or simply usually go offline to deal with different areas of their lives.

At a primary stage, Opal’s VPN permits customers to dam themselves from utilizing dozens of distracting apps and websites for sure intervals of time, together with social media, information, productiveness apps and extra.

Social media, particularly, has been an enormous drawback in recent times, Schlenker says.

“Specifically, Instagram, Fb and Twitter — social media is the place you’re feeling such as you’re studying one thing, and you’re feeling such as you’re connecting with individuals. So it’s good. However alternatively, it’s very exhausting to remain intentional,” he explains. “It’s okay to select up your cellphone and go to Instagram, however whenever you ‘get up’ half-hour later, you often really feel actually dangerous. You are feeling like, ‘the place’s the time gone?’, ‘what did I simply do?,’ ” he says.

Opal addresses this drawback by means of a handful of options.

Picture Credit: Opal

The free service permits you to block distracting web sites and apps and take breaks all through the day. By upgrading to the paid membership, Opal customers can schedule day off from apps to determine recurring downtimes — whether or not that’s for household dinners or working hours, or anything. In addition they can use a extra excessive model of this function referred to as Focus Mode, which locks you out of apps in a method that’s not cancelable.

Whereas the corporate is utilizing a VPN to make this method work, it’s being clear and simple about its knowledge assortment practices.

“There may be zero non-public looking knowledge that leaves your cellphone,” Schlenker insists. “Something you do in your cellphone outdoors of Opal’s app stays native in your cellphone and is rarely saved on any of our servers or every other servers. That’s crucial to us,” he says.

From inside Opal’s app, the corporate claims it solely collects usability and crash data — not looking knowledge. And the usability knowledge is totally anonymized for one more layer of privateness. Opal additionally doesn’t require an e-mail to start utilizing the app. It solely asks for one for those who select to pay.

Picture Credit: Opal

These core rules are also documented on Opal’s privacy page, and are why Schlenker believes his app received’t face the challenges that different screen-time apps on the App Retailer have skilled prior to now.

As you might recall, Apple cracked down on the screen time app industry a few years in the past — a transfer Apple said was targeted on defending consumer privateness, however has additionally been raised as a doable instance of anticompetitive habits. Lots of the apps on the time had been utilizing strategies Apple claimed put customers’ privateness and safety in danger, as they gave third-parties elevated entry to customers’ units. This was significantly regarding as a result of most of the impacted apps had been marketed as parental management companies — that means the tip customers had been typically youngsters.

Opal, in the meantime, is concentrating on adults, and maybe youngsters, who need to develop higher screen-time habits. It’s not promoting this as a parental management system, nevertheless.

Picture Credit: Opal

At launch, Opal can block over 100 apps and websites throughout a number of classes, together with Fb, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Reddit, Pinterest, YouTube, Netflix, Twitch, Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Robinhood, WhatsApp, WeChat and others, together with these within the information, grownup and playing classes.

Customers can select to dam the apps for brief breaks — 5, 10 or 60 minutes — all through the day. It’s also possible to set an intention and set a timer earlier than utilizing an app, that can assist you keep away from the problem of shedding monitor of time. And you may set focus timers or scheduled instances to routinely shut off app utilization.

You possibly can monitor your progress by viewing the “time saved” and you’ll share your successes throughout social media. In time, Schlenker plans so as to add extra of a scoring mechanism to Opal that may assist you to keep accountable to your unique targets.

Picture Credit: Opal

Although work on the app solely started in 2020, Opal started attracting consideration because it publicized its plans on Twitter and ran its non-public beta, which grew from a whole bunch to 1000’s of customers this yr, saving its customers a median of two hours per day.

Although Schlenker had connections with most of the angel buyers who’ve since backed Opal, he says the curiosity from institutional and bigger buyers was all inbound.

“It was not our intention to lift a lot, so early,” Schlenker notes.

The funds can be used to assist Opal develop its crew, significantly engineering, design in addition to product. The corporate may also quickly launch a model of Opal for Chrome and later, Android, and can experiment with extra social options round sharing and internet hosting group periods.

The app is at the moment a free download on the App Store with an non-compulsory $59.99/yr subscription plan.