Internet Dating Investments

The Round, an Austin-based App, Takes Speed Dating Virtual

STATESMAN - Oct 21 - Austin entrepreneur Zachary Casler estimates that dating app users spend ~10 hours a week swiping away looking for matches. But when it comes to his company's app, The Round, Casler is hoping users will spend just a few minutes a day. His app is designed to get users straight to a date. Casler, who serves as CEO, co-founded the company with Brian Atwood, who is CTO. The company has a team of 10 employees. Casler previously led Dindr, a food-focused dating app that will set up dinner and a date with a similar technology concept. However, Tinder sent the app a cease-and-desist letter because of the name similarity in 2018. Casler pivoted, founding The Round in July 2018. The app mirrors speed dating. At 2PM each day, users can set their preferences for where in Austin and what time they would like to go on a date, and look through a list of 5-15 profiles of people who chose the same preference. When a match is made, the app suggests date options. The Round raised $550K to date prior to its launch. It also is beginning another funding round, with the goal of raising $2M - $3M.

by Kara Carlson
See full article at Statesman

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Spectrum Labs Raises $10M for Its AI-based Platform to Combat Online Toxicity

TECH CRUNCH - Sep 24 - Spectrum Labs - which has built algorithms and a set of APIs that can be used to detect toxic behavior, has raised $10M in a Series A round of funding. The company plans to use the capital to expand its platform. The company has raised ~$14M to date. Spectrum Labs works with a wide range of companies, including The Meet Group. Spectrum Labs' AI-based platform is currently set up to scan for ~40 kinds of toxic behavior profiles such as harassment, hate speech, scams, grooming, illegal solicitation, and doxxing.

by Ingrid Lunden
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Skye Life Ventures and SuperDate Networks Enter Into Merger Agreement

PRESS RELEASE - Sep 10 - Skye Life Ventures Ltd. and SuperDate Networks have entered into an amalgamation agreement. Skye will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of SuperDate. SuperDate, is a private technology company, incorporated in British Columbia, Canada in 2014. SuperDate has developed a niche dating software application that matches users through common interests and activities. It is designed to be the first vertical scrolling dating app showing an array of activities and experiences in and around the user's city. Skye Life Ventures Inc. operates as a holding company acquiring valued-added operating subsidiaries focused in the technology, cannabis and other markets.

See full article at Newsfile

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TrulyMadly Raises Rs 8.1 Crore

ECONOMIC TIMES - Aug 31 - Indian dating app TrulyMadly has raised $1.1M (Rs. 8.1 crore) from several angel investors and a venture capital firm. The company reported a revenue of Rs. 3.60 crore ($493.4k) in the financial year 2018, Rs. 3.48 crore ($476.9k) in 2019 and Rs. 3.45 crore ($472.8k) in 2020. However, this fiscal year, the company expects to reach Rs. 9 crore ($1.2M) in revenue.

by Megha Mandavia
See full article at Economic Times

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Parent Company of Blued Buys Lesbian Platform

REUTERS - Aug 26 - BlueCity, the owner of China's biggest gay men dating app Blued, has bought a Chinese lesbian dating app LESDO, marking the first ever deal within the country's LGBT market. Launched in 2014, LESDO is an app for lesbians. It is believed to be the second most popular lesbian social app in China after Rela. BlueCity raised $84.8M in a Nasdaq IPO in July that valued it at $614M.

by Colin Qian & Brenda Goh
See full article at Reuters

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German Dating App, LemonSwan, Raised a 7-Digit Round

GRUENDER - July 29 - There are currently ~17M single people in Germany. The online dating revenue in the country will be reach ~212M euros in 2020. The market is dominated by large providers such as Parship or Elitepartner, who aggressively advertise on TV and at S-Bahn stations. So are the large pieces of the cake already distributed? Arne Kahlke and Paul Uhlig don't believe that. The two are founders of dating app Lemon Swan. The app, which claims 250K users, launched 3 years ago. Kahlke has a lot of experience in connecting people. He not only built up Parship's marketing, but also founded ElitePartner in 2004 and sold the company to ProSiebenSat1. Lemon Swan's matching process is similar to that of ElitePartner and Parship - the app works with a psychological personality test and a matching algorithm - but so-called bouncers are also used to check users identity. After a capital injection in January 2019, the start-up has now received fresh capital in the seven-figure range. With the money, LemonSwan wants to become profitable in the German-speaking region in the Q1 2021, and to expand internationally.

by Marie-Charlotte Maas
See full article at Gruender

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Blued Gay Dating App Plans to Raise $85M in US IPO

STAR OBSERVER - July 7 - Last week, Chines gay dating app Blued revealed that it plans to raise ~$85M in an IPO of American Depositary Shares (ADS). The IPO scheduled to hit the market on Wednesday July 8 is planning to sell 5.3M ADS at a price of $15-$17 per ADS. The app claims ~49M registered users. For comparison, Grindr has ~27M users and Tinder ~57M users around the world. Blued said it was planning to use the IPO proceeds for geographic expansion, investment in technology and development, AI and big data capacity.

by Shibu Thomas
See full article at Star Observer

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Video Matchmaking App Yidui Completes Series B Financing Led by Sky9 Capital

GLOBE NEWSWIRE - June 26 - Yidui, the video matchmaking platform in China, has completed a Series B round of financing led by Sky9 Capital and Xiaomi. Launched in 2018, the company has ~40M users and has raised $100M to date. Yidui provides an innovative dating experience, where the date is moderated by a third person - a "matchmaker" - who facilitates the conversation. The date is live-streamed and the audience can comment and live-chat with the matchmaker. Yidui's 10M matchmakers arrange 40M dates a month. Sky9 Capital is an early-stage focused venture capital firm investing in internet, enterprise and deep-tech sectors in China.

See full article at Globe Newswire

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Blued Gay Dating App Plans Nasdaq IPO

REUTERS - June 16 - BlueCity Holdings, owner of China's biggest dating app for gay men, aims to raise $50M from an IPO of American depositary shares (ADSs). The offer price for each ADS is yet to be finalised, and it will be traded on the Nasdaq global market under the symbol "BLCT". Founded in 2011, BlueCity says it has 49M registered users in ~210 countries. It added that it has 6M monthly active users, 49% of them from outside China.

by Colin Qian & Meg Shen
See full article at Reuters

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Kippo Raises $2M for a Dating App for Gamers

VENTURE BEAT - May 28 - Kippo has raised $2M for a dating app for gamers who want to find like-minded companions. Primer Sazze Partners led the round, with participation from Tinder executives and partners at Eaton Workshop, NextGen Venture, and IHeartComix. The capital will primarily be used to expand the interactive features on the app. The name for the company comes from a Korean word, and it's a twist on "happiness". The grand vision is to create a platform for everybody, a platform that is a gamified experience for people to meet new people". Gamers identify what games they like and include a lot of photos in their profiles. They also connect using in-game names, rather than phone numbers. 93% of Kippo users go on a virtual date and play video games together before meeting in-person. The company was founded in 2019 by David Park, Cheeyoon Lee, and Sean Suyeda.

by Dean Takahashi
See full article at Venture Beat

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