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.
Category: All Investment Raises
Relationship A.I. Seeks Seed Funding
OPW – Mar 4 – Relationship A.I. is a subscription app which helps improve the way daters make relationship decisions. Relationship A.I. helps dating app users track and process their love life from the first message through to a long-term relationship and compliments dating app platforms. They're in an active seed round. Contact info@relationship-ai.com.
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com
VCs Aren’t Falling in Love With Dating Startups
CRUNCHBASE – Feb 14 – In 2018, venture investors put $127M globally into 27 dating-focused startups. It's certainly tiny compared to the ~$300B in global venture investment across all sectors last year. While the US is home to the majority of funded startups in the dating category, the bulk of investment has gone to China. In 2018, ~80% of dating-related investment went to a single company – Blued, a Grindr-style hookup app for gay men. In 2017, the bulk of capital went to Chinese mobile dating app Tantan, and in 2014, Beijing-based matchmaking site Baihe raised ~$250M. Meanwhile, in the U.S, we are seeing an assortment of startups raising smaller rounds.
by Joanna Glasner
See full article at Crunchbase
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Malaysian Dating App Sugarbook.com Raises Seed Capital
DEALSTREET ASIA – Feb 4 – Malaysia-based "Sugar Daddy" dating app Sugarbook.com has raised a six-digit seed round from an angel investor. The angel investor comes from an investment banking background from a Hong Kong VC firm. According to Sugarbook, the proceeds will be used to scale and develop its product and infrastructure. Founded in 2017, Sugarbook has 300K members across 60 countries including Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and the US. The company generates revenue from monthly subscriptions and packages for sugar babies and daddies.
by Kristie Neo
See full article at Dealstreet Asia
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com
Dating App JigTalk Raises $1M
BQ – Jan 14 – JigTalk, the dating app that encourages online daters to talk more, has officially closed its seed round of $1M. The round was led by Apadmi Ventures and includes significant backing from high profile London, New York and Manchester-based angel investors. In addition to growing its team to 10 full-time staff, the company has also welcomed a new Chairman, Christopher Edmonds. Edmonds is the ex-global MD of technology for JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley. Over the course of the last 2 years, JigTalk has beta tested the app in the north of England and built a team ready to launch its app UK-wide, starting in London in Jan 2019.
by Ashleigh Smith
See full article at BQ
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Brand Capital Invests in Blockchain-powered App ‘Ponder’ To Launch in India
INDIANWEB2.COM – Dec 30 – Brand Capital, the strategic investment arm of India's largest media conglomerate the Times Group, has acquired a stake in Ponder, a blockchain-based recommendations platform. Founded in 2017 by Manshu Agarwal and Chris Imani, Ponder is a game-like mobile app to play matchmaker where users win money for making successful matches. With a drag and drop photos of friends or other singles that one think would be a good match, users play a matchmakers if singles like each other the user win $10, if they marry they get $1K. The app has been downloaded over 120K times and the startup is now building another referral app for recruitment purposes.
See full article at Indianweb2.com
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com.
Paktor’s Parent Company Raises $25M
BUSINESS TIMES – Dec 6 – M17 Entertainment, the parent company of dating and networking app Paktor, has raised $25M. The cash will go towards technical upgrades and new features for M17's live content-streaming platform, said the company. It also plans to invest in recruiting, training and promoting its content producers or "streamers", and in expanding its content and services. Terry Tsang, CEO of Hong Kong game developer Madhead, led M17 Entertainment's funding this time round. Other investors included Stonebridge Ventures and existing shareholders. M17 Entertainment was formed from the 2017 merger of Singapore mobile dating app Paktor and live-streaming platform 17 Media, founded by veteran Taiwanese rapper Jeffrey Huang Li-Tchen. Paktor co-founder Joseph Phua Jiexian became the group CEO of M17. It had planned an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2018, but trading was delayed and then shelved. M17 later said that it instead turn to private fundraising for $35M.
by Annabeth Leow
See full article at Business Times
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Coaching Service Relationship Hero Raised $2M
BUSINESS INSIDER – Dec 3 – Relationship Hero is an on-demand coaching service that provides customers with dating and relationship advice. Users can call, text, or chat one of the company's 70-full time coaches at any time of day. The company raised a $2M seed round led by Foundation Capital, Village Global, and Shrug Capital.
by Nick Bastone
See full article at Business Insider
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Ponder’s Pitch on Meet the Drapers
OPW – Dec 2 – Ponder is a friend-to-friend matchmaking app that uses blockchain to pay for referrals. The app is running a crowdfunding campaign. Ponder’s founder & CEO Manshu Agarwal pitched his app on TV show Meet the Drapers.
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com.
IPO Could Value Bumble At $1.1 Billion
BLOOMBERG – Nov 5 – An IPO in Bumble could value the app at as low as $1.1B, below the $1.5 billion figure it was reportedly seeking in January, according to calculations by Synovus Trust senior portfolio manager Dan Morgan. Andrey Andreev, majority holder of Bumble's parent company, is talking to banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. about a possible Nasdaq listing. Morgan applied the average multiple to an estimated 2019 revenue of $283M to get a $1.1B IPO valuation, though said it could increase on Bumble's plan to launch advertising next year.
by Shelly Hagan
See full article at Bloomberg
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.