Category: All Investment Raises

Live Streaming Platform M17 Raises $26.5M in Series D Round

Posted on May 12, 2020

M17 Media logoDEALSTREET ASIA – May 11 – M17 Entertainment has landed $26.5M in a Series D funding round led by the Temasek-backed Vertex Growth Fund. The company will focus on deepening its presence in Japan and the rest of developed Asia, while planning expansion into the US and new markets such as the Middle East. M17 said it has the largest live streaming platform in developed Asia, with ~60% market share by revenue in Japan and Taiwan. M17’s estimated annual revenue is $180M. In 2018, M17 raised $25M. The company also raised a $40M Series A round in 2017. M17 was formed in April 2017 after the merger of Singapore-based Paktor Group and Taiwan-based 17 Media, a regional live streaming company. The company's main dating apps are Paktor and Goodnight. M17 had planned to list its Paktor dating and networking app on the New York Stock Exchange in a $115M IPO in 2018, but it withdrew the application after the IPO roadshow only raised $60M.

by Leslie Shaffer
See full article at DealStreet Asia

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Sam Altman Backs ‘Video-First’ Dating App Curtn

Posted on May 5, 2020

Curtn iconTECH CRUNCH – May 5 – A new dating app advised by Grindr founder Joel Simkhai and former YC chief Sam Altman is aiming to capitalize on the skyrocketing popularity of video chat. The new app, called Curtn, is pushing video as its differentiating factor, encouraging users to create short videos for their dating profiles and aiming to move conversations to video chat after users match. CEO Brenden Strauss and his co-founder and CTO, Benjamin Honig have some noteworthy advisors. For one, Strauss' boyfriend Joel Simkhai is the co-founder of Grindr and was one of his biggest inspirations for building out the app. Former YC president and current OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is also serving as an advisor and is one of the startup's first investors. The team has raised ~$425K pre-seed round of investment to get the app ready to share with the world.

by Lucas Matney
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Match Group Invests in Noonlight for New Safety Features

Posted on January 24, 2020

Tinder noonlightTECH 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

Posted on January 16, 2020

Soul app screenshotTECHNODE – 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

Posted on December 13, 2019

Yubo logo 2019TECH 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

Posted on December 10, 2019

Yidui iconDEAL 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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S’More Launches in Beta, Backed by a $1M Seed Round

Posted on November 15, 2019

Smore screenshotMOBILEMARKETING MAGAZINE – Nov 14 – Dating app S'More (a.k.a. Something More), has launched its private beta this week in the Boston area, with a waitlist of ~8K singles and a $1M seed round, led by Benson Oak Ventures, and also including a number of private investors. S'More wants user to get to know each other without seeing them first. The more a user engages and chats with a person, the more their profile photos unblur and the more their private content unlocks. S'More founder, Adam Cohen Aslatei, worked at various dating apps and ad tech firms, including gay dating app Chappy, The Meet Group and Spark Networks.

by David Murphy
See full article at MobileMarketing Magazine

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Conservative Dating App Receives $200K in Pre-seed Funding

Posted on October 19, 2019

Right hook logoACCESSWIRE – 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.

See full article at Internet Dating Newswire

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Digital Identity Startup Yoti Raises £8M

Posted on August 3, 2019

Yoti logoTECH CRUNCH – Aug 2 – Yoti, the London startup offering a digital identity platform and app that lets users prove who they say they are when accessing services or making age-verified purchases, has raised £8M in additional funding. The startup had raised £65M in total since being founded in 2014. Yoti has formed a variety of partnerships including Heathrow Airport, which is working with Yoti to explore biometric travel for passengers; NCR, which is using Yoti to improve age-verification at self-checkouts; and Yubo, which is deploying Yoti to verify the age of users and to "safeguard" young people online.

by Steve O'Hear
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Muzmatch Raised $7M

Posted on July 26, 2019

Muzmatch iconTECH CRUNCH – July 26 – Muzmatch, a matchmaking app for Muslims, has just raised a $7M Series A. The app has now ~1.5M users, across 210 countries. The funding will help fuel growth in key international markets, is jointly led by US hedge fund Luxor Capital, and Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator – the latter having previously selected Muzmatch for its summer 2017 batch of startups. Last year the team also took in a $1.75M seed. The team has grown from four people seven months ago to 17 now. With the Series A the plan is to further expand headcount to almost 30. Muzmatch was already profitable two years ago.

by Natasha Lomas
See full article at Tech Crunch

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