ACCESSWIRE – Oct 16 – Right Hook, a North Carolina-based dating startup, have raised ~$200K from several angel investors to fuel the launch of its mobile platform and expansion to markets across the UK and the US. $150K came from London based VENBEYCAP.
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FORBES – Oct 16 – Users of Bare Dating can upload a photo but choose how much of it to reveal. Founded by Alex Sergent, a former journalist and founder of dating events company VEE, Gillian Myhill, and Phil Beesley, the platform has already secured a six-figure amount from an angel investor, and the co-founders are currently considering other proposals before they embark on the next round of investment. The platform is currently in beta testing on mobile optimized website, and they hope to have apps launched by the end of the year.
IDEA – Oct 18 – Here's Mark Brooks 14 minute presentation covering the state of the dating industry and our challenges, as at September 2019.
FOX BUSINESS – Oct 16 – IAC Chairman Barry Diller said that investor pushback over the spinoff of Match Group is inevitable but will ultimately get "solved." Last week IAC/InterActiveCorp announced plans to spin off all of its shares in Match to IAC stockholders. The company owns ~80% of Match. "Match is a cash flow machine. So we would not cause indebtedness at Match to be beyond any kind of rational threshold," he said.
FOX BUSINESS – Oct 16 – Facebook is not the place to go for online dating, according to IAC and Expedia chairman and senior executive Barry Diller. He said that if a company focuses on one thing, it will tend to do it better than others who are "dabbling." "The truth is we have not yet seen competition from Facebook," Diller said. "It's our business. For them, it's a little side business."
by Catie Perry
See full article at Fox Business
PR NEWSWIRE – Oct 15 – SDVentures, an international Internet holding founded by Dmitry Volkov, will be merging its g and social discovery products with SOL Holdings, an online entertainment and communications holding, to form Dating.com Group. As a result, SDVentures will receive $215M in cash and an equity stake in newly created Dating.com Group. Volkov plans to invest the funds in technology companies and startups.
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TREFIS – Oct 15 – In 2018, Facebook announced that it would launch a dating feature. Facebook has the benefit of a massive user base, and even a small percentage of its users adopting a new dating feature could catapult it to the lead position in this segment. However, the perception of Facebook's treatment of user privacy will act as a major deterrent for potential users. Facebook is no stranger to growing by acquisition, and Match Group looks like a great fit. Tinder represents an asset similar in quality and potential to WhatsApp which Facebook bought in 2014. As of 2018, the following is how Match Group's Key Metrics compared with Facebook:
Valuations: Standalone and that of the combined entity
For Match Group, we expect EV to be 9.2x the 2020 revenues of $2.5 billion. This translates into an implied enterprise value (EV) of $22.8B for the Match Group, and also represents an EV/EBITDA of 25.5x for the company.
PR NEWSWIRE – Oct 15 – MyLife, the leading online reputation platform, has updated its identity verification services and platform for dating sites to make their users safer. The identity verification updates offer dating sites the ability for users to learn more about the people they engage with online.
ASKMEN – Oct 15 – Dating app Hinge and restaurant reservation service OpenTable have launched Date Night Matchmaker, a service that will help users plan the date night by asking about budget, desired style of dining and the overall vibe or ambiance.