Amen Version 1.5 ‘Brings the Original Vision to Life’

By David Knight |

With today’s latest release packed chock full of new features, Amen is getting closer to how its creators originally envisaged it – that’s according to the company’s CEO Felix Peterson.

Version 1.5 of the opinion app has added photos, music and maps, as well as making it easier to connect with your Facebook friends. And the Berlin startup phenomenon has also scored some new investment to extend their development runway.

When asked whether the new features were as a result of user feedback or whether they had always been on the drawing board, Felix told Silicon Allee: “A little bit of both. We feel that this is the first version that actually brings the original vision to life. People understand where we are going.”

It is the kind of version that the founding team wanted when they started, Felix added, after they chose instead to get the service out as quickly as possible. “Some people said we didn’t wait long enough, but I think it was the right way to do it. Some of the things we had planned, we ended up not doing.”

The app works by allowing users to name the best and worst of anything they like, and then others can agree or disagree. Adding music and photos makes it easier to take part – if you did not know a song someone else had Amen-ed, for example, you can now listen to it without any hassle in order to make your mind up.

Felix said: “If you say poodles are the cutest dog, and you post a picture of a really cute poodle, it helps to illustrate why you think that way.”

The new funding, meanwhile, involves an expansion of Amen’s seed round by $1 million through Sunstone Capital of Denmark, while Dave Morin’s Slow Ventures has also become involved. They join an illustrious list of investors which most famously includes Ashton Kutcher. Felix added: “It’s not a new financing round. We did this instead of undergoing the extremely disruptive process of a big A round. We are a small team and we’re super focused on one platform. By taking just a little bit more, we’re extending the runway so we can really work on improving in long run.”

As one of Berlin’s best-known success stories, that will be music to the ears of many in the German capital’s tech scene.