Photo widget Locket raises $12.5 million

Locket, the Los Angeles, CA-based developer of the mobile-advertising-based photo-sharing app Locket, has raised $12.5 million in funding, according to Funded.com. The two rounds came from five investors, according to Crunchbase. The first $2.5 million round came in January, when the popular app was launched, with another $10 million in April. Seed round investors include Open AI CEO Sam Altman, Sugar Capital and Costanoa Ventures, and additional strategic investment from Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo and other angel investors, according to Funded.

The Locket widget – originally for iPhone but now also for Android – delivers photos to users’ lock screens. The app was created by Matt Moss, a former Apple Worldwide Developer Conference student scholarship winner who earned a Bachelor of Science in computer science from UC Santa Barbara. He created Locket as a personal side project for Ava Thompson, his girlfriend, to capture and share a natural moment of his day with her. Moss’ friends had questioned if they could use the app with their friends and family, so he opened Locket on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.

The widget lets users add up to 20 people to a home screen, which is  natural limit for Locket’s core premise of focusing on the closest connections.

According to published reports, the new funds will fuel continued hiring efforts and product development as the three-person company expands its community and prepares to release a steady flow of new interactive features.