{"id":598481,"date":"2026-04-10T19:17:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T19:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/598481\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T19:17:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T19:17:29","slug":"aussie-startup-spoony-shutting-down-after-rejecting-antithetical-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/598481\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie startup Spoony shutting down after rejecting &#8220;antithetical&#8221; AI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spoony, an award-winning Australian social media app focused on the disabled and neurodivergent community, will shut down as investors turn their focus from \u2018traditional\u2019 tech startups to artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Founded in 2024 as an alternative to the likes of Facebook, Instagram, and X, Spoony is a social media app helping users bond over their shared experiences.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The startup <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smartcompany.com.au\/startupsmart\/spoony-raises-1-million-disabled-neurodivergent-chronically-ill-social-media\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">raised $1 million to fuel its early expansion<\/a>, and now counts more than 65,000 users across the disabled, neurodivergent, and chronically ill communities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But co-founder and CEO Nicholas Carlton says Spoony is set to close by the end of May after its planned October 2025 funding round fell through.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking to SmartCompany, Carlton said Spoony followed the \u2018grow first, monetise\u2019 later model, which has fallen out of favour with investors now prioritising profitability. <\/p>\n<p>\tSmarter business news. Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>\n                            For startup founders, small businesses and leaders. Build sharper instincts and better strategy by learning from Australia\u2019s smartest business minds. Sign up for free.                        <\/p>\n<p>By continuing, you agree to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smartcompany.com.au\/terms-conditions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Terms &amp; Conditions<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smartcompany.com.au\/privacy-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tRelated Article Block Placeholder<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tArticle ID: 334342\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.smartcompany.com.au\/startupsmart\/ai-data-centre-startup-firmus-raise-725-million-8-billion-valuation-ipo\/\" class=\"\" target=\"_self\" title=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Firmus-founders-1.jpg\" class=\"aspect-video object-cover h-auto w-auto\" alt=\"AI data centre startup Firmus looks to raise another $725 million at $8 billion valuation\"  \/>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn the two years that I\u2019ve been working on Spoony, the environment has really changed a lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe sands have shifted, in a way, and I think there\u2019s an expectation now from investors that you are monetising much, much earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Advertising \u2014 the lifeblood of traditional social media \u2014 only makes sense once platforms pass a million users, said Carlton.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m disappointed that we haven\u2019t had the opportunity to grow into that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spoony explored other avenues. It referred users to speech pathologists, or doctors capable of administering ADHD and autism assessments, in a model Carlton called \u201creally successful\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, pursuing those opportunities further would have turned Spoony into a fully-fledged digital health business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe very much wanted to stay as a lightweight technology company that was bringing people together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Turning down AI in market frenzy<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another turning point came when Spoony experimented with a digital therapist powered by artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That model proved popular among some Spoony users, even as it pulled the startup further from its core ethos.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI got really concerned about the relationships people were forming with humanised AI, and so it felt, in the end, quite antithetical to what Spoony was, which was connecting two people together,\u201d said Carlton.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Eschewing artificial intelligence \u2014 not just in the chatbot, but when constructing the Spoony app itself \u2014 proved challenging for the startup when it sought further investment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cA lot of investors probably would have preferred that we were hooking people up with AI friends,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou can see that a lot of the funding has gone towards AI companions and AI friends. That\u2019s sort of very much where the VC focus is right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And Spoony\u2019s heterodox approach to AI showed when it won a Good Design Award last year, leading Carlton to celebrate \u201cfiercely human\u201d design in the \u201cera of AI slop\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tRelated Article Block Placeholder<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tArticle ID: 334202\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.smartcompany.com.au\/retail\/click-frenzy-power-retail-administration-receivership-collapse\/\" class=\"\" target=\"_self\" title=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/click-frenzy-screenshot.jpg\" class=\"aspect-video object-cover h-auto w-auto\" alt=\"Click Frenzy, Power Retail in liquidation as global conflict hits travel sales\"  \/>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The startup is now pursuing the sale of its assets to an acquirer, potentially an existing digital health business, that seeks a community element. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Without that kind of sale, the Spoony platform will wind down by the end of May.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reflecting on the startup\u2019s trajectory, Carlton said he hoped investors will back future innovation in the disability sector.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat part saddens me, that we just weren\u2019t able to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spoony, an award-winning Australian social media app focused on the disabled and neurodivergent community, will shut down as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,2494,291913,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-598481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-funding","14":"tag-spoony","15":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}