Internet Dating Investments

Vietnamese Dating App Fika Raised $1.6M

TECH IN ASIA - Fika was founded in 2020 by Denise Sandquist and Oscar Xing Luo who have professional backgrounds in finance and AI. It focuses on improving women's experiences in meeting people online. After signing up, all users must pass a verification check. Once they're in, users can look through AI-suggested matches based on their interests. Fika will use the new funds to expand its team, improve its AI, and grow its user base in Vietnam. The app is tailored to Vietnam, where it has 750K downloads and 40% of its users are women.

by Roehl Niño Bautista
See full article at Tech in Asia

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Venntro Acquires TheIntro.com, Dating App for Busy Professionals

PR NEWSWIRE - The Intro, the Dating App for Busy Professionals which was backed by the VC fund Global Founders Capital, has been acquired by Venntro Media Group. The Intro focusses on giving users dates, not swipes. When users match with someone on The Intro, they can be on a video date within hours. As part of the acquisition, The Intro's co-founder George Burgess will become an Advisor to Venntro Media Group to support their growth into niche dating, social discovery and live streaming apps. Launched in 2003, Venntro.com is the company behind WhiteLabelDating.com, which provides dating software, payment processing, and customer support to marketers who want to run their own dating site.

See full article at PR Newswire

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Dating App Swoovy Raised $1.2M

AUSTIN BUSINESS JOURNAL - Austin-based dating app Swoovy has raised $1.2M seed round. Swoovy, co-founded by Brooke Waupsh and Jeff McMahon in 2018, is turning dates into volunteer opportunities. Like Tinder or Bumble, Swoovy matches users who mutually swipe on each other. After matching, the couple can choose a volunteer event with a local nonprofit.

See full article at Austin Business Journal

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London-based Bare Dating Snaps up €456K in Seedrs Crowdfunding Campaign

EU STARTUPS - Aug 31 - A new dating app Bare has just completed a successful Seedrs campaign, crowdfunding €456K.The app describes itself as providing a safe space with true liberation from judgement that advocates for honesty, whilst experimenting with their romantic and sexual selves. Alex Sergent, CEO and Co-founder of Bare, said: "The Seedrs campaign has proven to us that we are giving the dating industry what it wants." With a voice note feature on matches, a sliding blur bar on photographs, and a community of openness, Bare is unique in its approach. It also offers ID verification on sign up to reduce 'catfishing'.

by Charlotte Tucker
See full article at EU Startups

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Dating App POM Raises £1.5M

UKTTN - Aug 3 - POM, a dating app that matches people based on the user's musical and psychological compatibility, has just bagged £1.5M in a pre-launch angel investment round via undisclosed investors. POM was created by 22-year-old up-and-coming entrepreneur Vihan Patel, who teamed up with his co-founder Vladimir Ignatyev, whom he met at school. The app has 25K members already, and it is currently accepting pre-registrations. The official launch of the POM app in London is slated for August 10. The investment will be used to further develop its emotional algorithm that matches users depending on their music library on Apple Music or Spotify and half a dozen questions.

by Akansha Srivastava
See full article at UKTN

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Dating Group Acquires Cupid Media for $51M

MOBILE MARKETING MAGAZINE - July 28 - Dating Group has acquired Cupid Media, an international dating company with 33 websites and a global presence for $51M (£36.77M). Cupid Media's portfolio consists of 11 core sites, including AsianDating, LatinAmericanCupid, Muslima, FilipinoCupid, ThaiCupid, and InternationalCupid. Together, the sites will boast an average of 7M monthly active users. Dating Group expects to increase its revenue to $300M.

by Gabby Fernie
See full article at Mobile Marketing Magazine

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Matrimony.com to Acquire Leading Wedding Services Aggregator ShaadiSaga

APN NEWS - July 7 - Matrimony.com, India's leading online matrimony company, has signed definitive agreements to acquire a 100% stake in Boatman Tech Private Limited, promoters of ShaadiSaga.com (a Delhi-based fast-growing online wedding services company) as approved by its Board of Directors. Founded in 2015, ShaadiSaga is a leading player in the Wedding Services industry, with 40K vendors across multiple services and catering to customers across 15 major cities in the country. Following this acquisition, ShaadiSaga's founders - Himanshu Kapsime (CEO) and Manish Garg (COO), along with another key leader - Niraj Patel (CPO) will join Matrimony.com in senior leadership roles.

See full article at APN News

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Krafton Acquired Chatbot Entertainment Startup 'ThingsFlow'

KOREATECHDESK - July 5 - Krafton, the Korean gaming startup behind mobile game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), bought a 'chat entertainment content' startup Thingsflow, and in May 2021, it had acquired 'Between', a Korean dating app from Socar subsidiary mobility startup VCNC.

See full article at KoreaTechDesk

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Dating App Thursday Raises $3.5M

TECH CRUNCH - June 28 - Thursday, a dating app that only works on Thursdays, has raised a £2.5M (~$3.5M) seed investment, a few months after launching in May in London and New York. Last Thursday (June 17) it says that 110K likes were sent, resulting in 7,500 matches in a single day. The app opens for usage at 00.01 each Thursday morning so swiping is compressed into a few hours. All matches and conversations vanish at midnight. Hence users are pushed to act quickly. Matches are also limited to x10 people a day. The plan for the seed funding includes hiring a head of growth and a head of marketing, in addition to other senior roles and a number of tech hires - and coming up with what they dub as a "six figure marketing strategy".

by Natasha Lomas
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Iceland's Dating App, Smitten, Raised $2.7M

SIFTED.EU - June 18 - Smitten, a dating app from Iceland, has raised $2.7M to expand in Europe, and to woo Gen Zers (people born between 1997 and 2015) with a dating app that mixes gaming, entertainment and flirting. Most Smitten users are 25 or younger, and roughly 20% are 18 years old. The company says it will use the investment to launch in the Nordics in late August or early September. Smitten's round was led by early-stage firm byFounders, with participation from PROfounders, Inventures, Brunnur Ventures, Tiny.vc and several angel investors. As part of the round, wine app Vivino founder Heini Zachariassen and PROfounders's Joe Bond will join the board.

See full article at Sifted.eu

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