Talk about great timing: Over the past month, Enigma has become the go-to app for people to share and discover videos of mysterious drones flooding the Northeast skies.
The New York-based company shares many similarities with the popular app Citizen: Enigma. Enigma asks users to post videos of what they're watching and provide location information for where they're watching.
And while government officials remain tight-lipped about what's happening in the skies above states such as New Jersey and New York, the app has nearly 1 million downloads. A company spokesperson said the total number of videos uploaded increased by 74% in the last month alone.
“People are seeing something, they're scared and they don't know where to send it,” said Kristin Kim, a spokeswoman for the company. “We want to create a space and a community for people to talk about it and create a space where people can talk about it.”
Enigma also uses the latest terminology: “unidentified anomalous phenomenon” People have come to associate UFOs with flying saucers and little green people.
“We normalize the behavior of seeing something and talking about it,” Kim added.
To weed out misinformation, Enigma has staff review all videos before allowing them to be posted on the app.
The company, founded last year on the Lower East Side, comes at a time when whistleblowers suggest there may be something to it. Last month, the previous administration testified at a Congressional hearing that the Pentagon had not fully disclosed what it knew about the recovered alien aircraft.
Paul Sprezer, a 56-year-old merchant marine captain from North Bergen, New Jersey, downloaded the app after he started seeing orange, UAP-like floating balls in the sky last month.
“It validates what you're seeing…you can [communicate with] Other people posting videos of the same thing… it’s great to communicate about this,” he explains.
Enigma, which has employees from major companies such as Meta, American Express, and trendy startup Tia, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from venture capital giants such as a16z and Kindred Ventures. The company is focused on profits. That means focusing on growth before profits.
Enigma, on the other hand, has its own mysteries. The founder remains anonymous and is referred to simply by his initials “A.” Whoever she is, all the information the app collects can be put in the right hands. NYNext is said to be “A” We met with the team that compiled the UAP report for NASA that was released last year. Although the company has not signed any government contracts to date, Mr. A said, “We are in regular informal discussions with government officials.''
This article is part of a new editorial series called NYNext, which focuses on innovation across various industries in New York City and the people leading the way.
