In what is either a brilliant publicity prank or the best ever example of the insanity gripping the venture capital markets, a startup known as Burn Money is claiming to have raised a £2 million ($3.1 million) seed round.

Launched in 2014, Burn Money offers an app available on both Android and iOS that, as the name may suggest, allows users to burn money.

While the idea of seeing a virtual representation of money being burned may not sound like a money maker, there’s a catch: to burn the money virtually you have to pay for the privilege…to be more precise if you want to burn a $100 bill on the app, you have to pay $100 to do so.

The company points to a post by Professor Dan Ariely discussing the app, where he states that people may be using this app as a signaling device:

Signaling is a way to communicate to ourselves and anyone watching who we are—and, often, who we want to be. For example, we can signal prosperity with the homes we buy, we can signal stylishness with the clothes we wear, and we can signal environmental concern with the hybrids we drive.

Similarly, letting people know you’ve been burning money (both virtual and real) could be an attempt to signal wealth—as if people are saying, both to themselves and to anyone watching, “Look at me: If I can burn money, doesn’t that show how wealthy and comfortable I am?”

If the whole concept isn’t weird enough by this point, the app has actually been moderately successful, with Google Play reporting it has been installed between 50,000 and 100,000 times.

Reviews, however, are another matter; while the app has received 582 5 star votes, it has likewise received 739 1 star reviews, for an average ranking of 2.4 out of 5.

Generally speaking users of the app don’t seem to understand concepts such as “in-app purchases” with complaints, unsurprisingly, all relating to the need to pay for the money users wish to burn.

“It sucks U have to buy the next money u burn delete this game it’s stupid,” one semi-literate user wrote, with another proving something roughly related to social Darwinism adding “WTF U have to pay I didn’t know and I know owe $50.”

App real, funding probably not

While the app is real, we doubt very much that the funding round is, particularly given the registered company behind the game is one Meme Ltd., who trade as marketing agency The Meme Agency.

That said, you kind of wish it was a real round of funding, because the pure and joyful absurdity of funding going to a company dedicated to burning money could so easily become the poster child for some of the insanity that is currently occurring as part of the second great tech boom.

Image credit: supplied