IRL founder who fooled heavyweight investors with fabricated numbers now must pay back.

A startup called IRL had to shut down its social media app after an investigation revealed that just 5% of its users were real while the rest were automated or bots. 

According to a report, app founder and CEO Abraham Shafi repeatedly claimed over the course of several years that the app boasted roughly 20 million users.

The company raised nearly $200 million from the likes of SoftBank's Vision Fund and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, among others and at one point was valued at 1.2 billion dollars. 

The company’s board launched an internal investigation and confirmed what technology outlets had long suspected. Shafi was accused of misconduct and ordered to return the capital to investors.

As a result, the app IRL – acronym for “in real life” – was shut down entirely on 27 June 2023.

Founded in 2018, IRL had billed itself as a Gen Z-focused event-organizing medium with focus on offline, interpersonal connection.