Wildfire
Wildfire was a free mobile social app that started as a campus safety alert tool and grew into a college-focused social news and community platform, serving nearly 1 million U.S. university students before being acquired by Opendoor in 2025.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2019
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Wildfire does
Wildfire was a mobile-first consumer social application originally built as a campus safety alert tool and later expanded into a broader college social news and community platform. Founded by Hriday, Jay, and Vinay during their senior year at UC Berkeley, the app enabled students at U.S. colleges and universities to send and receive rapid notifications about significant events nearby, organize protests and campus activities, participate in anonymous peer discussions, host audio rooms, and run Q&A sessions within their university community. Over approximately six years of operation, Wildfire accumulated nearly 1 million users and facilitated 65 million alerts, growing through viral, word-of-mouth adoption among student populations at campuses including UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Cal State Sacramento, Cal State Dominguez, UC Merced, UNC Greensboro, and UNC Wilmington.
The product was delivered as a free iOS and Android application distributed through app stores, relying on a product-led growth model with no documented paid acquisition channels. Its primary differentiating features were campus-scoped community walls, anonymous posting, and a community alert system that multiple users described as more dependable than their university's official safety channels. The business model was freemium, with no disclosed monetization mechanics, no enterprise or institutional contracts, and no publicly reported revenue.
Wildfire received a $120,000 investment from Y Combinator in 2017 and prior participation in the SkyDeck Berkeley accelerator. In 2025, the company announced it was being acquired by Opendoor, a real estate technology platform, with all three co-founders transitioning to roles at Opendoor and the standalone Wildfire product being wound down. Post-acquisition, Wildfire's technology, team, and community assets are being absorbed into Opendoor's operations rather than continuing as an independent entity.
Wildfire firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Wildfire
- Legal name
- Wildfire
- Website
- https://getwildfire.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2019
- Operating status
- Acquired
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Wildfire was a free mobile social app that started as a campus safety alert tool and grew into a college-focused social news and community platform, serving nearly 1 million U.S. university students before being acquired by Opendoor in 2025.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where Wildfire is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
Wildfire business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- Consumer Mobile App: Free mobile application for college students, likely monetized through advertising or data services to universities and campus organizations
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Others | Free mobile app for college students |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels1 record
Wildfire product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Wildfire operated a mobile application for college students that combined campus safety alerts, anonymous peer-to-peer communication, audio rooms, Q&A, and event organization features. The app enabled users to broadcast and receive notifications about significant events happening nearby on their campus and to engage in a community-scoped social news feed. The platform was free to consumers and grew to nearly 1 million users before being acquired by Opendoor in 2025.
Product overview
Wildfire was a single, unified mobile application serving college students. Originally launched as a campus safety alert app during senior year at UC Berkeley, it evolved into a social news platform that empowered communities to share information about significant events happening nearby. Over six years, the app sent 65 million alerts to nearly 1 million users before the company was acquired by Opendoor. The product featured anonymous communication, audio rooms, Q&A functionality, and localized community engagement tools.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Wildfire App A mobile social news and safety alert application for college and university students that enables community members to broadcast and receive alerts when significant events happen nearby. The app evolved from a campus safety tool into a social platform with audio rooms, Q&A functionality, anonymous communication, and event organization features.
Quantifiable outcome
- 65 million alerts sent to nearly 1 million users over six years
Companies that use Wildfire
Customer profileNamed customers8 records
Segments1 record
Ideal customer profiles1 record
Wildfire technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature3 records
Wildfire partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
One partnership is on record.
- OpendoorcoreWildfire announced it is joining Opendoor, transitioning from an independent company to being part of the Opendoor platform. The founders (Hriday, Jay, and Vinay) will continue building at Opendoor. This represents a full acquisition rather than a partnership, integrating Wildfire's technology and team into Opendoor's operations.
Scale indicators2 records
Recent moves3 records
Expansion highlights3 records
Wildfire competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Yik Yak: Yik Yak is the most direct comparable — an anonymous, location-based social app that originally launched for college students, was shut down over harassment concerns, and was relaunched in 2021 targeting the same campus demographic with moderated anonymous posting.
- Fizz: Fizz is a college-focused social app offering anonymous and pseudonymous chat, memes, and community features tied to specific universities — directly overlapping Wildfire's core use case of campus-only anonymous peer communication.
- Sidechat: Sidechat is an anonymous social app built around college and university communities, with a similar vertical (campus-only) and feature set (anonymous posting, group chats) to Wildfire.
- IRL: IRL was a social discovery app for young users focused on events, groups, and community building — overlapping with Wildfire's audio rooms, Q&A, and community-engagement features for the same Gen Z demographic.
Broad incumbents
- GroupMe: GroupMe, owned by Microsoft, is a group-messaging app widely used by college students for class chats, clubs, and campus coordination — a broader incumbent serving overlapping student communication use cases.
- Bumble: Bumble operates Bumble Date, BFF, and Bizz within a single social platform heavily used by college-age users; its BFF mode targets the same community-building use case as Wildfire but at a much broader scale.
- Nextdoor: Nextdoor is a hyperlocal community platform sharing news, alerts, and event coordination within defined geographies — the same hyperlocal-news-and-alerts mechanic that Wildfire offered, scaled to neighborhoods rather than campuses and now relevant as Opendoor's parent.
Emerging players
- Dispo: Dispo is a social photo app targeting Gen Z with event-based, authenticity-focused sharing — overlapping with Wildfire's community-event organization and news-sharing features for the same young-adult demographic.
- Gas: Gas (formerly tbh) is an anonymous polling and compliments app launched by former Facebook and Discord product leads, targeting the same Gen Z and high-school/college demographic as Wildfire with anonymous social mechanics.
- Zenly: Zenly (acquired by Snap) was a location-based social map app widely adopted by teens and college students for sharing real-time presence and nearby events — closely aligned with Wildfire's 'something significant happened nearby' alert use case.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Wildfire social profiles
Digital presenceWildfire financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Wildfire leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles4 records
Wildfire funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds2 records
Investors2 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Wildfire M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Wildfire
What does Wildfire do?
Wildfire operated a mobile application for college students that combined campus safety alerts, anonymous peer-to-peer communication, audio rooms, Q&A, and event organization features. The app enabled users to broadcast and receive notifications about significant events happening nearby on their campus and to engage in a community-scoped social news feed. The platform was free to consumers and grew to nearly 1 million users before being acquired by Opendoor in 2025.
Is Wildfire a public or private company?
Wildfire is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently acquired.
When was Wildfire founded?
Wildfire was founded in 2019. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Wildfire based?
Wildfire is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Wildfire make money?
One revenue line is on record: consumer Mobile App.
Who are Wildfire's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Yik Yak, Fizz, Sidechat and IRL. Broad incumbents are GroupMe, Bumble and Nextdoor. Emerging players are Dispo, Gas and Zenly.
Does Wildfire have an API?
No public API is recorded for Wildfire.