NEWS

PicSee: Koo Co-founder Mayank Bidawatka Launches AI-Powered “Mutual Photo Sharing” App

October 2025, Bengaluru / India — After the closure of Koo in 2024, its co-founder Mayank Bidawatka is making a bold comeback — this time in consumer tech. He has launched PicSee, an AI-led “mutual photo sharing” app under his new venture Billion Hearts Software Technologies. PicSee introduces a fresh take on photo sharing — one where you receive photos of yourself only if you share yours, powered by a “give to get” algorithm.

How PicSee Works — The “Give to Get” Flow

The app scans your gallery (on-device) and uses face recognition to identify photos of your friends.
It then sends personalized photo-sharing invites to those friends. Once both approve, the mutual sharing relationship activates.
From then on, PicSee auto-detects new photos, matches faces, and exchanges images — no repeated manual uploads.
Users have a 24-hour review window for outgoing photos and the ability to recall shared images.

Privacy is a core design:
• Photos stay on users’ devices and are encrypted during transfer
• PicSee does not store your photos in the cloud
• Screenshots are disabled within the app

Early Traction & Metrics

The app soft-launched in July 2025 and is now available on both iOS and Android.
PicSee has grown 75× in two months, driven purely by user referrals (no major ad blitz).
The user base spans 27 countries and 160+ cities.
Over 150,000 photos have already been exchanged.
Interestingly, ~30% of users now have more photos of themselves on PicSee than in their own camera roll.

? About the Founder & Vision

Mayank Bidawatka is best known as cofounder of Koo, the Indian microblogging platform launched in 2020 and shut down in mid-2024.

After Koo’s closure, he pivoted to Billion Hearts Software Technologies, with a vision to create consumer AI products that are “privacy-safe and globally scalable.”

He previously held leadership roles at redBus and other startups, and his shift to PicSee represents a renewed belief in human connection through technology — not just social media.

Why PicSee Matters

- Solves a universal pain — many of your best memories are trapped in friends’ phones. PicSee brings them back.
- Minimal friction — no manual sharing, no chasing friends, no messy album exports.
- Privacy-first — everything from processing to encryption happens on-device.
- Scalable model — mutual sharing aligns incentives: you give to get.
- Emotional / social value — builds deeper bonds by restoring forgotten moments.

What to Watch Next

How PicSee handles scaling face recognition across cultures and lighting conditions
Competition & user switching from WhatsApp, Google Photos, Instagram, etc.
Laws & regulation around biometric / facial recognition data, especially in India and abroad
Monetization path — will the core remain free? Will premium features (editing, albums) come later?
Expansion into video sharing, metadata & album curation

✅ Final Thought

PicSee marks a bold next chapter from a founder who’s been through highs and lows. It’s not just another photo app — it’s a mission to democratize memory sharing, using AI to restore what’s lost.

“Your friends’ phones are treasure chests — full of photos of you you never got. PicSee helps you dig them out.” — Mayank Bidawatka