# Midjourney buys Co-Star as it builds its first standalone image app > Source: > Published: 2026-07-24 14:47:22+00:00 [Midjourney](https://www.midjourney.com/?ref=runtimewire), the AI lab founded by David Holz, has acquired astrology app [Co-Star](https://www.costarastrology.com/team/?ref=runtimewire) while building Midjourney's first standalone image-generation app, [Bloomberg reported on July 24](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-24/ai-startup-midjourney-buys-astrology-app-co-star-and-is-building-its-own-apps?ref=runtimewire). The deal closed during spring 2026, according to Midjourney, which declined to disclose the price. The acquisition brings together two founders who built consumer products around different versions of the same premise: people will adopt unusual technology when the interface gives them a reason to return. Holz turned generative image models into a subscription product that initially lived inside Discord. Banu Guler built Co-Star around birth charts, personal advice and compatibility readings shared among friends. Co-Star has about 4.3 million monthly active users, according to Sensor Tower data cited by Bloomberg. That audience gives Midjourney something its underlying image models cannot supply on their own: an established mobile habit, a social graph and years of experience packaging machine-generated output as a daily consumer product. Bloomberg's report does not specify how Midjourney will use Co-Star, whether Guler will take a role at Midjourney or whether Co-Star will continue operating independently. Midjourney is also keeping the launch date, platform and pricing for its standalone image app private. ### Holz is building beyond the model Holz founded Midjourney in 2021 after serving as co-founder and chief technology officer of Leap Motion, the hand-tracking company later acquired by Ultraleap. He studied applied math at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, leaving his Ph.D. program to start Leap Motion, and previously worked with NASA's Langley Research Center and the Max Planck Institute, according to his [Society for Science biography](https://www.societyforscience.org/people/david-holz/?ref=runtimewire). That background matters because Midjourney has been organized as a research lab rather than a conventional venture-backed software company. Midjourney's careers page says it has [raised no outside capital](https://xam.midjourney.com/careers?ref=runtimewire), has no advertisers and is supported by its community. The arrangement has given Holz latitude to move from image generation into products that would be difficult to connect inside a typical AI startup roadmap. Midjourney already lets subscribers generate images through [its website and Discord](https://docs.midjourney.com/hc/en-us/articles/31541509949069-Using-Midjourney-in-Discord?ref=runtimewire). A standalone app would give Midjourney tighter control over onboarding, creation, discovery, notifications and payments. It would also reduce the role of Discord, the third-party platform that helped Midjourney spread quickly but kept a layer between Midjourney and many of its customers. Owning the application layer has become increasingly important as image models improve and competing services offer similar baseline capabilities. Model quality still matters, but consumer distribution depends on the surrounding product: how quickly a new user reaches a useful result, how creations are organized and shared, and what draws that user back after the first experiment. Co-Star has spent almost nine years working on those problems. ### Guler built astrology into a social product Guler co-founded Co-Star in 2017 after leading product and design work at VFILES and working with brands including Diane von Furstenberg and Michael Kors. Born in Texas to Pakistani and Turkish parents, she moved to New York at 17 to study psychology at NYU and taught herself graphic design while working as a bike messenger, according to [Co-Star's team page](https://www.costarastrology.com/team/?ref=runtimewire). Her product thesis treated astrology as a framework for reflection and conversation. Co-Star asks users for their birth date, time and location, then combines planetary data, natural-language systems and human writing to generate personalized readings. Users can add friends, compare charts and receive compatibility assessments. Guler has framed Co-Star as a tool for self-understanding and social connection. That positioning made the product function like a social network organized around identity and private conversation, rather than a utility that delivers a generic horoscope once a day. Co-Star had already attracted venture investors before the sale. In 2021, it [raised a $15 million Series A](https://www.axios.com/2021/04/14/astrology-app-co-star-raises-15-million-funding?ref=runtimewire) led by Spark Capital, with Maveron, Female Founders Fund and existing investors participating. Co-Star said at the time that it had passed 20 million downloads, a company-reported figure that predates Sensor Tower's current estimate of 4.3 million monthly active users. The acquisition gives those investors an exit, although the undisclosed price makes the return impossible to assess. It also places Guler's product inside a self-funded buyer that has publicly rejected the standard venture capital playbook. For Holz, the useful part of Co-Star extends beyond astrology. Guler and her colleagues developed a distinctive voice, notification system and social loop around personalized machine-assisted writing. Those skills map directly onto the challenge Midjourney faces as it turns image generation from a tool people visit into an application they keep on their phones. ### Midjourney is becoming a portfolio The Co-Star deal follows a broader expansion that Holz began laying out in June. Midjourney's site lists multiple forthcoming software and hardware projects under themes including imagination, coordination and reflection. Co-Star fits most clearly into the last two categories. Holz has also moved Midjourney into medical imaging. [Midjourney Medical](https://www.midjourney.com/medical?ref=runtimewire) says it is developing a [full-body ultrasound scanner](/article/midjourney-medical-ultrasound-scanner-david-holz) and intends to open its first San Francisco location at the end of 2027. Its claims about scan speed, scale and performance remain company projections, but the project shows how far Holz is willing to stretch Midjourney beyond the image generator that established its name. That expansion is taking place while Midjourney defends copyright lawsuits brought by major entertainment companies. Disney and Universal filed a [federal complaint in June 2025](https://news.justia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Disney-Universal-v.-Midjourney-Complaint.pdf?ref=runtimewire), accusing Midjourney of using and reproducing protected characters without permission. Warner Bros. later filed a related case. A standalone app will put Midjourney into a closer consumer relationship at the same time that the legal rules around generative media remain contested. Product ownership gives Holz control over distribution and experience, while also concentrating responsibility for moderation, intellectual property controls and user behavior inside Midjourney's own interface. The Co-Star purchase offers the clearest evidence yet of how Holz plans to make that transition. Midjourney bought an experienced consumer-app organization with millions of active users and a founder who spent years turning generated personal content into a repeatable social ritual. What Holz keeps from Co-Star will help determine whether Midjourney becomes a collection of ambitious projects or a consumer technology group built around its models.