Houseparty was a group video-chat application developed by Life On Air, Inc. (the team behind earlier live-streaming app Meerkat). Launched in February 2016, the app let up to eight friends drop in on synchronous video rooms on iOS, Android, macOS and Chrome, and later layered in casual social games such as Heads Up, Trivia and Uno. After steady growth among teens and young adults, Houseparty was acquired by Fortnite maker Epic Games in June 2019 for a reported ~$35 million and operated as a standalone product. The app went viral during the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020, adding roughly 50 million sign-ups in a single month and topping App Store charts in dozens of countries. As usage normalized post-pandemic, Epic announced in September 2021 that it would shut down the app; Houseparty was discontinued in October 2021 and its team and technology were folded into Epic's Fortnite voice-chat stack and metaverse social initiatives.
Houseparty has been acquired
This company is no longer available on our private secondary market.
Company data and valuation marks are estimates and may be incomplete, stale, erroneous, or revised.
Founded
2015
Total Funding
$64M
2 rounds
Latest Valuation
$0.15B
December 9, 2016
Total raised $64M across 2 rounds
Funding data and valuation marks are estimates and may be incomplete, stale, erroneous, or revised.
Last updated 06-25-2026
Latest Round
Type
Series B
Date
December 9, 2016
Amount
$52M
Valuation
$0.15B
Lead Investors
| Date | Round | Amount Raised | Valuation | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 9, 2016 | Series B | $52M | $0.15B | Sequoia Capital |
| March 1, 2015 | Series A (as Life On Air / Meerkat) | $12M | — | Greylock Partners |
Sima Sistani
Co-Founder & CEO (2019-2021)
Ben Rubin
Co-Founder & former CEO
Competitor list is illustrative and may be incomplete, stale, or erroneous.
Zoom
Public video-conferencing platform that surged during the pandemic and competed for casual/social video chat use.
Discord
Voice, video and chat platform popular with gamers and friend groups; a primary social/voice competitor.
Snapchat
Snap Inc.'s teen-skewed messaging and video product that competed for Houseparty's core young-adult audience.
Facebook Messenger Rooms
Meta's group video-call product, launched in 2020 as a direct response to Houseparty's pandemic-era growth.
Bunch
Group video-chat app focused on overlaying voice/video on mobile games; competed for social-gaming use cases.
Squad
Screen-sharing and group video-chat app for friends; later acquired by Twitter in 2020.
Access live market data
Sign UpData collected with AI, which can make mistakes. Please double-check this information.