Talk about good timing: Enigma has become the go-to app over the past month for sharing and discovering videos of the mysterious drones flooding the Northeast skies.
The New York-based company has many similarities to the popular Citizen: Enigma app that invites users to post videos of what they see and indicate where they see it.
And as government officials remain coy about what’s happening in New Jersey, New York and elsewhere, the app has reached nearly a million downloads; In the last month alone, the total number of videos uploaded increased by 74 percent, a company spokesperson said.
“People see things, they’re scared and they don’t know where to send them,” said Christine Kim, a company spokeswoman. “We’re trying to create a place and a community where people can talk and have a place to talk about it.”
Enigma also uses updated terminology “unidentified anomalous phenomena” (UAP) rather than UFOs, which people now associate with flying saucers and little green men.
“We normalize the behavior of seeing something and talking about it,” Kim adds.
Enigma has a human employee who reviews all videos before allowing them to be posted on the app, with the aim of weeding out hoaxes.
The company, launched last year on the Lower East Side, comes on the scene at a time when whistleblowers are suggesting there might be something there. Last month, the former administration told a congressional hearing that the Pentagon was not fully revealing what it knew about the alien planes it had recovered.
Paul Sprieser, 56, a merchant marine captain who lives in North Bergen, New Jersey, downloaded the app when he started seeing floating UAP-like orange orbs in the sky last month.
“It validates what you see… you can [communicate with] other people posting a video of the same thing… it’s great to communicate about that,” he explains.
Enigma, whose employees come from major companies like Meta, American Express and hip startup Tia, has raised funding (the amount is undisclosed) from some of the biggest names in venture capital, including a16z and Kindred Ventures . The company is pre-revenue, meaning it focuses on growth before trying to make money.
Meanwhile, Enigma has its own mystery: its founder remains anonymous and bears simply the initial “A”. Whoever she is, it’s possible she can put all that information collected by the app in the right hands. NYNext receives “A” met with the team that compiled a report on UAPs for NASA, released last year. Although the company has not yet signed any contracts with the government, “A” said it “talks regularly and informally with government officials.”
This story is part of NYNext, a new editorial series that highlights innovation in New York across all sectors, as well as the people leading the way.
