Retro, the friend-focused photo-sharing app, has raised more than $21 million in Series A funding, according to TechCrunch, which cited an SEC filing. Techmeme points to Business Insider’s report that Lone Palm Labs, the startup behind Retro, raised a $21 million Series A from Thrive Capital and others. The filing was made under Lone Palm Labs, TechCrunch reports. Business Insider first spotted the SEC filing, according to TechCrunch, and the filing is dated August 19 while indicating the funding itself closed in December. Retro did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment. Retro was built by former Instagram product engineers Nathan Sharp and Ryan Olson, according to TechCrunch. The app launched in 2023 as a personal photo journal and has since expanded into a more private sharing product: users can share photos from their week with friends, build shared albums, view and share recaps, and use a “rewind” feature to revisit photo memories. The positioning is deliberately narrow compared with algorithmic social feeds. In a December interview cited by TechCrunch, Sharp said people would still want to see more from their friends as For You-style feeds dominate major social platforms, and that personal photos and videos need a place to reach their intended audience. Retro’s model also differs from ad-supported consumer social networks. TechCrunch reports that the app does not monetize through advertising; instead, it offers in-app subscriptions that add features such as video support, GIF and sticker comments, additional styles, unlimited history, and special app icons. The app has reached around 7 million downloads since launch, according to Appfigures data cited by TechCrunch. The same data showed in-app spending up more than 460% over the past 180 days. TechCrunch notes that subscribers remain a small subset of users, but frames those paying customers as potentially more committed users of the photo-sharing app. PitchBook estimates Retro’s valuation at more than $100 million, TechCrunch reports. The outlet lists Retro’s backers as including Thrive Capital, Figma CEO Dylan Field, Scribble Ventures, Box Group, Imaginary Ventures, Coalition, Conviction, Copper, Positive Sum, and several angels. Who benefits: Retro benefits from fresh capital and validation for a paid, friend-focused photo-sharing model. Existing backers and new investors gain exposure to a consumer app that is trying to monetize through subscriptions instead of ads. Who's exposed: Too early to tell. The risk for Retro is that downloads do not necessarily translate into a large paying subscriber base.