Internet Dating Investments

Bhad Bhabie and Lil Yachty Invest $1M in Jewish Dating App

TIMES OF ISRAEL - June 7 - Rappers take a stake in 'Lox Club,' a Jewish dating app for people 'with ridiculously high standards'. The two rappers have made the $1M investment in partnership with Adam Kluger, an agent for musical artists. Kluger was Bhad Bhabie's manager and partners with Lil Yachty on investments. The dating app has an application process and a membership fee, and members work with a matchmaker.

by Ben Sales
See full article at Times of Israel

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London-based Paired Lands €2.9M

EU STARTUPS - May 26 - Paired, a leading app to improve romantic relationships, has raised €2.9M in seed funding, bringing the total raised by the company to date ~€3.7M. Paired is a fun, evidence-based app that prompts daily conversations between partners. Since launching in October 2020 it has ~5K paying subscribers, with growing audiences in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada. The investment will accelerate the company’s global growth ambitions and scale up its product development efforts, giving users personalised recommendations based on their relationship interests and needs.

by Charlotte Tucker
See full article at EU Startups

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Meet Schmooze, a Meme-Based Dating App

TECH CRUNCH - May 26 - Schmooze combines machine learning and memes to connect people based on humor algorithm. A beta test in late summer with 200 Stanford students has since led to 10K downloads around the country. Currently ~200 memes are added each day, while others are deleted. 90K matches have been made to date. It recently closed on $270K in seed funding from Ulu Ventures and others to tinker with its product.

by Connie Loizos
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Y Combinator-backed Matchmaking Startup Betterhalf.ai Raises $3M

YOUR STORY - May 26 - BetterHalf.ai, the AI-driven matrimonial app, has raised $3M in a pre-Series A round. The startup will use the funding to boost its app engagement, build monetisation features, and product discovery across organic channels, it said in a statement. Earlier, Betterhalf.ai had raised a $2.3M seed round from Y Combinator, Tribe Capital, Nurture Ventures, and Saurabh Garg (Founder/CBO, NoBroker) and Shailesh Rao (Ex-MD of Google India, former Partner, TPG Capital). Founded in 2016 by MIT graduate Rahul Namdev and serial entrepreneur Pawan Gupta, the AI platform uses predictive analysis to help professionals find a match through compatibility scores based on relationship dimensions and their interactions on the product.

by Sindhu Kashyaap
See full article at Your Story

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Dating Group Completes DilMil Acquisition

PRESS RELEASE - May 24 - Dating Group, the parent company of Dating.com, DateMyAge, XOXO, Tubit, ChinaLove, and DilMil, has completed the acquisition of DilMil and plans a major expansion of its operations within India. In 2020, Dating Group signed the terms of the acquisition with DilMil investors and its founder, KJ Dhaliwal. Upon completion of the acquisition, Mr. Dhaliwal joined Dating Group and was appointed Chief Strategy Officer. Since the acquisition a little more than a year ago, DilMil has seen a 50% growth and a 38% increase in active users.

See full article at EinPresswire

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Krafton Acquires Korean Dating App 'Between'

KOREATECHDESK - May 14 - Krafton, the Korean game startup known for its game PUBG (PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds), is acquiring 'Between,' a Korean dating app from Socar subsidiary mobility startup VCNC. The amount of the acquisition deal has not been disclosed. Krafton, which is about to go public in H2, is expected to increase its valuation by diversifying its business. VCNC's Between division will be integrated into a newly established subsidiary 'Between Us' by Krafton in March by June. Between is a messenger app for couples developed by VCNC CEO Park Jae-wook in 2011. The app, free to download, lets couples chat, plan dates, share their favorite photos & videos, make voice calls, track anniversaries and special dates, etc.

See full article at KoreaTechDesk

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Chinese Online Dating App Soul Seeks to Raise $100M in U.S. IPO

CAIXIN GLOBAL - May 12 - Tencent-backed social media app operator Soulgate is seeking to raise an initial target of $100M in an IPO in the U.S., betting investors will buy into the growth story of its networking features even as it continues to lose money. Soulgate, whose dating and chatting app Soul targets adults under 30, says it would spend the proceeds mainly on developing its AI, big data capability and technology infrastructure, as well as brand marketing and promotional activities to grow its user base. Soul launched in November 2016, matching users to like-minded individuals online via AI after they take a personality test and list their interests. 74% of its average daily active users (DAUs) are under 30. Soulgate is yet to turn a profit with losses expanding last year to 600.9M yuan ($92.1M), from 348.7M yuan in 2019. In the first quarter of this year, the company's net loss ballooned sixfold YOY to 409.6M yuan. However, the company has posted steady revenue growth, recording 498M yuan ($77M) in total revenues last year, up from 70.7M yuan ($12M) in 2019.

by Timmy Shen & Qian Tong
See full article at Caixin Global

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Snack, a 'Tinder Meets TikTok' Dating App, Opens to Gen Z Investors

TECH CRUNCH - May 10 - Snack, a video-first mobile dating app designed with a younger generation in mind, has launched its own Gen Z Syndicate on AngelList, which will allow Gen Z community members, influencers, creators and others to participate in the company's upcoming $2M SAFE, alongside other funds and angel investors. The company in February announced $3.5M in seed funding. Users on Snack post videos to a feed which others then like in order to be matched.

by Sarah Perez
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Dating App Qemistry: Another Cross Between Tinder and TikTok

UKTN - Apr 28 - London-based dating app startup Qemistry has raised a £250K fundraise on Crowdcube. These funds will be utilized for marketing. Qemistry enables users to set a series of video clips on their profile, instead of mere static images. The app already has a wait list of 10K Londoners.

by Shubham Sharma
See full article at UKTN

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British Startup So Syncd Raises €827K

EU-STARTUPS - Apr 27 - So Syncd, a dating app that matches compatible personality types, has raised a seed round of ~€827K to grow its user base in the US. The round is led by Upscalers investment club, with participation from KM Capital, a US VC firm and a number of angel investors. Created by siblings Jessica Alderson and Louella Alderson, So Syncd connects people on a more meaningful level. The app uses Myers-Briggs personality types to match couples. So Syncd now has ~60K users.

by Charlotte Tucker
See full article at EU-Startups

This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch