Branch founders Hursh Agrawal, Cemre Güngör, and Josh Miller
We first saw the news on The Verge.
As part of the acquisition, Facebook will form a Conversations group based in New York City. The plan is to "build Branch at Facebook scale."
Branch allows you to host conversations about anything and have them with anyone.
Branch, formerly known as Roundtable, first launched in 2011. In that time, the company raised a modest $2 million.
Here's a Facebook post from Branch founder Josh Miller announcing the acquisition below:
After two years building Branch and Potluck, I am thrilled to announce that we will be continuing our mission at Facebook!
We will be forming Facebook's Conversations group, based in New York City, with the goal of helping people connect with others around their interests. Their pitch to us was: "Build Branch at Facebook scale!"
Although the products we build will be reminiscent of Branch and Potluck, those services will live on outside of Facebook. A more thoughtful note and details to come soon but I am writing this haphazardly from a mountain in Japan (I was tipped that the story was going to leak while on vacation).
In the meantime, a huge "thank you" to our investors. Especially, Jason Goldman, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, Ryan Freitas, John Borthwick, and Jonah Peretti, who all spent an extraordinary amount of time with us.
Most importantly though, a big congrats to my eight teammates who have worked tirelessly,
often behind the scenes. So much and admiration: http://branch.com/company#team - on we go!