Internet Dating Investments

Dating App JigTalk Raises $1M

BQ - Jan 14 - JigTalk, the dating app that encourages online daters to talk more, has officially closed its seed round of $1M. The round was led by Apadmi Ventures and includes significant backing from high profile London, New York and Manchester-based angel investors. In addition to growing its team to 10 full-time staff, the company has also welcomed a new Chairman, Christopher Edmonds. Edmonds is the ex-global MD of technology for JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley. Over the course of the last 2 years, JigTalk has beta tested the app in the north of England and built a team ready to launch its app UK-wide, starting in London in Jan 2019.

by Ashleigh Smith
See full article at BQ

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Brand Capital Invests in Blockchain-powered App 'Ponder' To Launch in India

INDIANWEB2.COM - Dec 30 - Brand Capital, the strategic investment arm of India's largest media conglomerate the Times Group, has acquired a stake in Ponder, a blockchain-based recommendations platform. Founded in 2017 by Manshu Agarwal and Chris Imani, Ponder is a game-like mobile app to play matchmaker where users win money for making successful matches. With a drag and drop photos of friends or other singles that one think would be a good match, users play a matchmakers if singles like each other the user win $10, if they marry they get $1K. The app has been downloaded over 120K times and the startup is now building another referral app for recruitment purposes.

See full article at Indianweb2.com

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Paktor's Parent Company Raises $25M

BUSINESS TIMES - Dec 6 - M17 Entertainment, the parent company of dating and networking app Paktor, has raised $25M. The cash will go towards technical upgrades and new features for M17's live content-streaming platform, said the company. It also plans to invest in recruiting, training and promoting its content producers or "streamers", and in expanding its content and services. Terry Tsang, CEO of Hong Kong game developer Madhead, led M17 Entertainment's funding this time round. Other investors included Stonebridge Ventures and existing shareholders. M17 Entertainment was formed from the 2017 merger of Singapore mobile dating app Paktor and live-streaming platform 17 Media, founded by veteran Taiwanese rapper Jeffrey Huang Li-Tchen. Paktor co-founder Joseph Phua Jiexian became the group CEO of M17. It had planned an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2018, but trading was delayed and then shelved. M17 later said that it instead turn to private fundraising for $35M.

by Annabeth Leow
See full article at Business Times

This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch.

Coaching Service Relationship Hero Raised $2M

BUSINESS INSIDER - Dec 3 - Relationship Hero is an on-demand coaching service that provides customers with dating and relationship advice. Users can call, text, or chat one of the company's 70-full time coaches at any time of day. The company raised a $2M seed round led by Foundation Capital, Village Global, and Shrug Capital.

by Nick Bastone
See full article at Business Insider

This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch.

Ponder's Pitch on Meet the Drapers

IDI - Dec 2 - Ponder is a friend-to-friend matchmaking app that uses blockchain to pay for referrals. The app is running a crowdfunding campaign. Ponder's founder & CEO Manshu Agarwal pitched his app on TV show Meet the Drapers.

This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch.

Japan's Rakuten Sells Matchmaking Unit O-net to Polaris Capital

DEAL STREET ASIA - Nov 30 - Japan's e-commerce giant Rakuten has offloaded its entire stake in O-net, one of the country's largest matchmaking services, to Japanese private equity firm Polaris Capital for an undisclosed amount. O-net was founded in 1980 as OMMG and acquired by the e-commerce giant in 2007. The sale involves 280K shares, or 100% interest, in O-net, with the acquisition expected to be completed by the end of this year. O-net, which currently employs ~500 people, is engaged in marriage matchmaking services, event planning and management, publishing, and other businesses related to marriage service. As of last year, it had 46K members.

by Mars Woo
See full article at Deal Street Asia

This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch.

IPO Could Value Bumble At $1.1 Billion

BLOOMBERG - Nov 5 - An IPO in Bumble could value the app at as low as $1.1B, below the $1.5 billion figure it was reportedly seeking in January, according to calculations by Synovus Trust senior portfolio manager Dan Morgan. Andrey Andreev, majority holder of Bumble's parent company, is talking to banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. about a possible Nasdaq listing. Morgan applied the average multiple to an estimated 2019 revenue of $283M to get a $1.1B IPO valuation, though said it could increase on Bumble's plan to launch advertising next year.

by Shelly Hagan
See full article at Bloomberg

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Shareholders Increase Stake in Spark Networks

FAIRFIELD CURRENT - Nov 4 - First Manhattan Co. boosted its holdings in Spark Networks by 197.3% during the Q3. The firm owned 225,170 shares. First Manhattan owned 6.99% of Spark Networks worth $2.6M at the end of the most recent quarter. Separately, PEAK6 Investments increased its position in Spark Networks by 7.4% in the Q2. PEAK6 Investments now owns 478,119 shares valued at $5.1M.

by Darrell McKinsey
See full article at Fairfield Current

This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch.

Wake-up Call, eHarmony Sold For A Song

OPW - Oct 30 - ProSiebenSat.1 bought eHarmony for $85 million. A real deal. They'll run on a common platform in the future. eHarmony will do roughly $90m revenues, and $0 profit in 2018. Customer lifetime value for eHarmony is $200, whereas Parship is at $570. More info here. Brand recognition for eHarmony stands above Tinder and on par with the likes of Instagram and American Airlines.

See full article at the IDEA blog.

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How Much Was eHarmony Sold For?

FINANCIAL TIMES - Oct 30 - ProSiebenSat.1, one of Germany's largest media groups, has agreed to buy US dating site eHarmony as part of its drive to create the world's biggest online matchmaker. ProSieben already owns stake in Parship Elite, a successful German dating business. ProSieben, which will merge eHarmony with Parship Elite did not disclose financial terms of the deal. But one person briefed on the acquisition said it valued eharmony at $85M - making it a surprisingly cheap date compared with rival Match, which has a market value of $13.7B. eHarmony, which raised ~$100M during just one fundraising round 15 years ago, has spent ~$1B on marketing in recent years, according to the person.

by Matthew Garrahan
See full article at Financial Times

Mark Brooks: eHarmony was sold for more than $85 million, that's for sure. Its brand value alone is worth double that. I'd put them at North of $300 million valuation.

This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch.