Internet Dating Investments

Grindr Sale Finalized for ~$608.5 Million

QUEERTY - Mar 28 - The move came just four years after Kunlun bought the app from its original creator, Joel Simkhai. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S, a government watchdog group, ordered Kunlun to sell off a majority stake in the company last year. One of the new investors is James Lu, a Chinese tech mogul. A company called San Vicente Acquisition Partners was set up to make the purchase and allow the buyers to stay anonymous.

by Dan Tracer
See full article at Queerty

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Dating.com Group Launches $50 Million Corporate VC Fund

PULSE 2.0 - Mar 20 - The fund will invest in companies and projects in the dating space. Dating.com Group has recently acquired India-based Dil Mil - which is known as the "Tinder for South Asians". Some of the company's other apps include Dating.com, AnastasiaDate.com, Tubit, DateMyAge, AsianDate.com, and AfricanDate.com. The first investment was in S'More - which is a dating app encourages users to learn more about a person before looking at profile photos.

by Amit Chowdhry
See full article at Pulse 2.0

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Beijing Kunlun to Sell Grindr for $608.5M

REUTERS - Chinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech has agreed to sell Grindr for ~$608.5M to San Vicente Acquisition. San Vincente Acquisition comprises a group of entrepreneurs and investors in the technology, media and telecommunications industries. One of the investors in the group is Chinese-born U.S. citizen James Lu, a former executive at Chinese search engine giant Baidu.

by Echo Wang & Chibuike Oguh
See full article at Reuters

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The Meet Group to Be Acquired by NuCom for $500m

BUSINESSWIRE - Mar 5 - The Meet Group shareholders will receive $6.30 per share in cash. The deal is expected to close in the 2nd half 2020. NuCom Group is a joint company owned by of ProSiebenSat.1 and General Atlantic's. NuCom's portfolio, under Parship Group, currently includes Parship, Elite Partner and eharmony. The purchase price represents a 30% and 43% premium to the unaffected 30 and 60 trading day volume weighted average price.

Geoff Cook, CEO of The Meet Group said. "This transaction will allow us to tap new strategic growth opportunities by leveraging our video platform and ProSiebenSat.1's experience with content and entertainment. What's more, with this transaction and the participation of both General Atlantic and ProSiebenSat.1, we will achieve a new level of financial scale and backing, which has the potential to further accelerate our growth."

Max Conze, CEO, ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE said, "The acquisition of The Meet Group is one of ProSiebenSat.1's largest transactions. It will significantly advance our ambition to create one of the leading global players in online dating and interactive live video. We believe the combination of these two successful and complementary businesses will also create synergies within the ProSiebenSat.1 universe and accelerate the growth of our market share in the German live video apps sector."

Tim Schiffers, CEO Parship Group said: "Following a successful acquisition of eharmony, we have proven that we can manage new businesses and accelerate their growth by combining the best of both worlds."

See full article at Businesswire

Mark Brooks: The Meet Group is a wonderful fit. Great news for the industry. The dating industry is heating up again. (Full Disclosure: The Meet Group are a client of Courtland Brooks, and I own shares)

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Matrimony.com Acquires Stake in Astrology Company Astro-Vision

ECONOMIC TIMES - Feb 5 - Indian online matchmaking company Matrimony.com has acquired a 26.1% stake in Astro-Vision, an astrology content and horoscope software provider, for an undisclosed sum. Astro-vision provides Vedic astrology content and offers a software that can generate horoscopes. Matrimony.com said Astro-Vision has generated 110M horoscopes till date. Murugavel Janakiraman, Chairman and Managing Director of Matrimony.com, said astrology was critical to a match on the company website.

by Bharani Vaitheesvaran
See full article at Economic Times

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Match Group Invests in Noonlight for New Safety Features

TECH CRUNCH - Jan 23 - Match Group has invested in and partnered with connected safety platform Noonlight to roll out a series of new safety features to its dating apps. The tools include emergency assistance, location tracking, photo verification, and an updated in-app Safety Center. Match Group didn't disclose the size of the investment, but did say it was joining Noonlight's Board of Directors. Noonlight, which has been operating for five years, today partners with Uber, Lyft, Alexa, Google Home, Fitbit, Canary, SmartThings and others. It has handled ~100K emergencies to date and runs 3 monitoring centers. One key addition to Tinder, powered by Noonlight, will allow U.S. users to share details about upcoming dates via Noonlight's Timeline technology. Tinder users will be able to share who they are meeting, where and when by adding the date to their timeline. Another new feature will allow users to easily and discreetly trigger emergency services via the Noonlight app, if they’re feeling uneasy or in need of assistance.

by Sarah Perez
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Chinese Soul App Focuses on Shared Values Rather Than Appearances

TECHNODE - Jan 16 - Shanghai-based Renyimen Technology launched Soul App in late 2016. While most dating apps let users browse a feed of profile pictures to find matches, Soul App employs a mix of personality and interest tests to sort users. It then uses machine learning to generate pools of members with similar values and interests for users to choose from. Users cannot see any personal information of others, besides their test match score and their public posts. Soul App closed a $60M Series C led by GGV Capital in Dec 2018. In January 2018, the company raised tens of million dollars in a Series B from DST Global, Genesis Capital, and Morningside Venture Capital. Soul App has ~10M monthly active users.

by Tony Xu
See full article at Technode

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Yubo Raises $12.3M for Its Social App for Teens

TECH CRUNCH - Dec 12 - French startup Yubo has raised a $12.3M funding round led by Iris Capital and Idinvest Partners. Existing investors Alven, Sweet Capital and Village Global are also participating. The startup has managed to attract 25M users since its launch in 2015. Yubo is a social media app for young people under 25 with one focus in particular on helping teenagers meeting new people and creating friendships. In 2019, the startup has generated $10 million in revenue. Yubo will use this funding round to also improve safety. The company already partners with Yoti for age verification.

by Romain Dillet
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Chinese Video Dating App Yidui Secures $10M

DEAL STREET ASIA - Sep 9 - Video dating app Yidui has raised $10M in Series A+ round from XVC. The dating app is operated by Beijing Milian Technology & Trade. It has closed Series A round funding from BlueRun Ventures. Milian Technology, which launched the dating app in 2018, claims to have 10K+ active profiles currently. By the end of 2019, Milian Technology is targeting to cross 1B yuan ($142M) turnover mark.

See full article at Deal Street Asia

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Dating.com Acquires Dil Mil App for South Asian Expats

TECH CRUNCH - Nov 25 - The Dating.com Group, an investment of SDVentures, has acquired Dil Mil, a San Francisco-based dating app for expats from India and other South Asian countries. The acquisition was via a combination of cash and Dating.com Group stock. According to Dating.com, the deal values the company at up to $50M. CEO and founder KJ Dhaliwal will continue to manage the company and will join Dating.com Group's M&A and Strategy committees, as well as the Dating.com Group Advisory Board. Dil Mil has effectively become the 'Tinder for South Asians', has ~1M users in the US, UK, & Canada, and has spread its influence both via the app, as well as events, music, and art. The portfolio of Dating.com Group already includes numerous brands including Dating.com, DateMyAge, LovingA, Tubit, AnastasiaDate, ChinaLove and others.

by Mike Butcher
See full article at Tech Crunch

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