ECONOMIC TIMES – Mar 22 – Sankara Narayanan, former Aircel top executive who had joined Matrimony.com as COO, has quit just a little over two months after joining the company. Four months ago, K Balasubramanian resigned as CFO. The company had replaced Balasubramanian with former Mindtree top executive Sushanth Pai.
by Bharani Vaitheesvaran
See full article at Economic Times
BNN BLOOMBERG – Mar 22 – Canadian fashion stylist and TV personality Jessica Mulroney has been named a strategic advisor for Bumble. Mulroney joins Serena Williams and actor Priyanka Chopra, who have been named advisors and ambassadors for the "women first" dating app in which females initiate conversation. Mulroney will work with the company's senior executive team on growing the company's other social-media platforms including Bumble Bizz and Bumble BFF. Mulroney will also participate in Bumble's mentorship and networking events in Canada.
PR NEWSWIRE – Mar 22 – Spark Networks today announced its entry into a definitive agreement to acquire Zoosk. With the addition of Zoosk, Spark will more than double in size and the combined business will be considerably more valuable than the two stand-alone entities. In 2020, Spark expects Adjusted EBITDA to exceed $50M. Approximately two-thirds of the combined company's revenue will be generated in North America. Spark will acquire 100% of Zoosk's shares with a combination of cash and stock valuing the company at ~$255M based on the closing price of Spark Networks stock on March 20, 2019. The transaction is expected to close early in Q3 2019.
See full article at PR Newswire
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AXIOS – Mar 21 – Bumble is in talks to raise what would be its first round of traditional VC funding. One potential investor is said to be Accel Growth.
BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK – Mar 21 – The urge to have a child hit Blued's founder Geng Le hard after age 35. Surrogacy is illegal in China. Another option was Thailand, but by 2015 that country had banned foreign surrogacy. Geng decided on California, which offered the best legal protections for "intended parents" such as himself, excellent advanced medical care for the surrogate and the newborn, and a U.S. passport for the baby. The surrogacy process was a long drumbeat of tests, contract signings, and administrative details. When the due date came around, Geng flew to LA for the birth and held his son for the first time. He returned home with his son, Xiao Shu, in March 2017. He also brought back a new idea for Blued: an overseas surrogacy service for gay men – Bluedbaby. Bluedbaby shepherds clients through such choices, connecting them with steps such as choosing an egg donor, finding a surrogate, signing contracts, and navigating American culture.
by Dune Lawrence & David Ramli
See full article at Bloomberg Businessweek
WASHINGTON POST – Mar 21 – Just over half of Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 (51%) said they do not have a steady romantic partner, according to data from the General Social Survey released this week. That 2018 figure is up significantly from 33% in 2004 – the lowest figure since the question was first asked in 1986 and up from 45% in 2016. Women are having fewer children, and they're having them later in life. The median age of first marriage is increasing. And according to a 2017 report from the Pew Research Center, among those who have never married but are open to it, most say a major reason is because they haven't found the right person.
See full article at Washington Post
PHILADELPHIA BUSINESS JOURNAL – Mar 21 – The Meet Group has built its portfolio of five dating apps through acquisitions, with the $11.8M deal to buy niche gay dating app Growlr being the most recent. Historically, the company has looked for apps that either expand into a segment of users it hasn't reached before or a new geographic area, like Growlr with the gay community and Lovoo with its European foothold. Integrating video has been a top priority. They like to see a lot of one-to-one chat messages and relatively high DAU. Meet's new video revenue stems from in-app purchases users make to buy and give "gifts" like a virtual race car, and when a popular livestreamer acquires the equivalent of ~$200 worth, they can redeem for cash. Apple and Google get a 30% cut of revenue stemming from in-app purchases, the livestreamer gets 35% and Meet pockets the other 35%. Cook expects video revenue to double in 2019 and double again by 2021.
by Michelle Caffrey
See full article at Philadelphia Business Journal
NEW YORK TIMES – Mar 20 – Feeld app was released in 2014 by Dimo Trifonov and Ana Kirova, two graphic designers living in London, as 3nder. They hoped to appeal to individuals and partners looking to join or have threesomes. But after Tinder filed a lawsuit and the company rebranded as Feeld , the founders said they welcomed the opportunity to expand the mission of the app. "Feeld is a platform for alternative dating, for people who are beyond labels," said Ms. Kirova. ~35% of users are on the app with a partner, and 45% identify as something other than heterosexual. The company struggled to find funding at first. Many investors considered the app "adult entertainment," which venture capitalists tend to avoid. Eventually an angel investor swooped in to save Feeld, but the fact that the business is sex-related has presented other challenges. The money transfer app TransferWise temporarily blocked Feeld's ability to collect money for paid memberships. Mr. Trifonov also claims he was refused an office rental because the landlord didn't approve of the nature of their business. Now, the company is up and running more or less smoothly, with 20 people employed.
NEWSWEEK – Mar 21 – Some Tinder users were reporting outage and messaging issues with the app on Wednesday. They were having a hard time seeing their matches and their messages in the app. "This may be temporary, so please try again at a later time," said Tinder. For those experiencing that their matches aren't loading, the site recommended that they update their app. It also recommended logging out and back in.
OPW – Mar 20 – It looks like the end has come for LoveFlutter, the "Twitter dating" app. LoveFlutter first launched in 2013 as a dating app powered by Google's Knowledge Graph, and used Foursquare to suggest ideas for first dates. The app relaunched in 2017 and implemented Twitter feed into users' profiles. "Your tweets say a lot about your personality and therefore are good online dating fodder," said Loveflutter co-founder Daigo Smith back in May 2017. Last year, the app was found on sale on Flippa for $150K. The LoveFlutter.com website is now down and the app is no longer available in the app stores.