14 DAY TRIAL // London-based social website Bragster has just announced the fact that it has closed a $3.5 million first round of venture capital financing, led by Intel Capital. The site is known for "dares and social bets," and can be portrayed as a social site that challenges its users to perform extreme actions, as shown in the movie below.
The main idea behind the website is that its members can dare one another in order to do similar things the "Jackass" television show would be proud of. Their successful completion has to finalize by posting a video footage to confirm the procedure. The best stunts are awarded miscellaneous prizes, financed by Bragster's co-founder. Moreover, the site also sponsors "unorthodox" contests such as college students stripping.
"Bragster was founded to record all the crazy things our friends were bragging about but never seemed to happen. There's a competitive spirit in each of us and challenges everywhere, and Bragster is available to record and enrich them," said Bragster co-founder Wim Vernaeve, who previously worked at Morgan Stanley.
Amongst other ridiculous challenges, there are mentioned slapping innocent passers-by with a fish in the supermarket, pouring hot considerable amounts of hot coffee on the personal notebook or even doing 15 shots of tequila in a single hour.
Bragster said that the funds will be directed to support future product launches, as well as to accommodate new partners, rather than paying the bill for either prizes or hospitalization (given the fact that some stunts might always go wrong). It also claimed that the money comes just in time for the future development of the one-year old website, that scored more than 800,000 viewers in 12 months.
"The social networking market segment is experiencing tremendous growth but has yet to find an optimal business model. Bragster's understanding of social media along with its broad entertainment appeal positions it to capitalize on this opportunity and create a richer, deeper experience for both advertisers and users," stated Alain-Gabriel Courtines, Intel Capital investment director.
Bragster is more than insane stunts, however. In is the ideal place for advertisers targeting at young people. It can also be considered as the start for a whole lot of new social websites focusing on people who lay bets not related to money, but reputation. This type of social media can easily be spotted and merged with more generalist entertainment portals, such as MySpace or Bebo, not to mention fully-fledged companies.