Ben Rubin and Sima Sistani have a history of developing market-leading apps. In 2015, they launched livestreaming app Meerkat at SXSW, garnering plenty of attention. Now CEO and chief operating officer respectively of group video chat app Houseparty, they hope to make the same splash in 2017.

But while live video is certainly of the moment, the founders thought there needed to be something else to it.

“For many members of Gen Z, Houseparty is replacing calling and texting. By stripping away the onus of calling when you need to chat – you’re just ‘in the house’ when you’re available – it’s changing habits around phone communication,” says Rubin.

Launching in secret in February 2016, the VC-backed service has acquired one million daily active users with little publicity. It has muscular funding, however, with Crunchbase listing a total of $73.2m (£56.9m) in equity funding from six rounds.