THE AGE – May 11 – Muzmatch was developed and launched by former London banker Shahzad Younas in 2015. Billed as "Where Single Muslims Meet", Muzmatch offers greater privacy and accuracy protections on photos, filters out foul language and anti-Muslim comments, and even offers a "chaperone" option – users can nominate a parent or other person to monitor conversations. The app claims ~1M members worldwide and has led to weddings in 190 different countries between 25K people.
Category: Muzz
Founder of Muzmatch: ‘Muslims Don’t Date, We Marry’
BBC – Mar 25 – Shahzad Younas is the founder and CEO of Muslim dating site and app Muzmatch. Two years ago, Shahzad was in San Fran pitching Muzmatch at a global competition to win backing from prestigious Silicon Valley investment firm Y Combinator. He opened his address to the room by saying: "Muslims don't date, we marry." Y Combinator offers financial and practical support to a number of new start-ups per year. ~13K applied at the same time as Muzmatch, and it was one of 800 whose founders were invited to pitch in person. Muzmatch was given $1.5M (£1.2M), one of 100 start-ups that got backing in 2017. Today the fast-growing company says it currently has ~1M registered users across the UK and other countries. With a second office in Bangladesh, Muzmatch operates a "freemium" business model. It is free to use its basic service, but users can pay ~£10 a month for extra features such as unlimited viewing of profiles, and having their profile seen by more people. The company says its annual turnover is now~£4.5M.
Muzmatch Is for People Looking for Marriage
BUSINESS INSIDER – Jan 14 – Dating app Muzmatch claims ~1M users. Founded by an ex-Morgan Stanley banker, the app caters to Muslims who are looking to find a partner to marry. Muzmatch is mostly popular in Britain, the US and Canada. Shahzad Younas left his job as banker in June 2014 to learn how to build apps after he had the idea for the company. In April 2015, initially using almost $200K of his own savings, he launched the first version of the app from home, and grew it to 50K users around the world in less than a year. He met iOS engineer Ryan Brodie in April 2016. The pair revamped and relaunched the company in August 2016. In summer 2017, the duo raised ~$2M in seed investment. By halfway through 2018, they had 500K registered users. Muzmatch claims to be the only one in the world with a chaperon feature, which allows a friend or relative to be present in a chat. "There's an Islamic principle where when a guy and a girl are getting to know each other there should be a third party present," Younas says. "For some users it's important – if it didn't have that feature, they wouldn't use it." In October 2018, it launched ads on the London Underground with catchy phrases such as "Halal, is it me you're looking for?" It launched a second campaign in January with similarly tongue-in-cheek taglines.
Muzmatch “Hello” By Muzmatch
CAMPAIGNLIVE.CO.UK – Sep 7 – Muslim dating site Muzmatch makes reference to well-known hits from Lionel Richie and Adele in its display campaign. With a six-figure media spend, it is running on the London Underground and on buses in London, Birmingham and Manchester.
Behind Muslim Dating App Muzmatch’s 12 Language Rollout
SLATOR – June 13 – Former investment banker Shahzad Younas and tech entrepreneur Ryan Brodie have raised $1.75M in seed investment for a business idea that has quickly caught on among young Muslims in 190 countries. Muzmatch now has ~500K users in the English speaking world, and is now ready to take the business global. On June 14, 2018, in time for the celebration of Eid al Fitr or the end of the Ramadan, the company is launching the service internationally in 12 languages – French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Arabic, Turkish, Bengali, Farsi, Urdu, Hindi, Indonesian and Malay. Younas revealed that localizing the app was no walk in the park. "Firstly, we had some technical work to undertake – namely extracting out every text/string from both our server-side code as well as the individual app codes – both on iOS and Android. Once done we aggregated this into a spreadsheet, and then began the task of seeking translators for each language," he said. There was also no technology deployed to the translation process and the team relied only on Google Sheets.
Muslim Dating App Muzmatch Goes International With 12 Additional Languages
BDAILY NEWS – May 29 – Muzmatch, the London-based company has confirmed plans to expand internationally and add 12 languages. Set up in 2015 by former investment banker Shahzad Younas and tech entrepreneur Ryan Brodie, Muzmatch is already used by over 500K English speakers in 190 countries. Muzmatch raised a $1.75M seed investment in January and has backing from Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator and Hambro Perks. Muzmatch will launch the new app internationally in time for the Muslim festival of Eid al Fitr on June 14.
Niche Dating Site Muzmatch Set To Launch Internationally
THE NATIONAL – Apr 16 – There are "enormous" money-making opportunities in online dating, says Victor Anthony, managing director of Internet and media at Aegis Capital. "Players with scale will continue to dominate the market, but there are also opportunities for niche operators to compete as well." One such niche operator is Muzmatch, a dating app for Muslims based in Aldgate, central London. The company was set up four years ago by Shahzad Younas, a former investment banker at Morgan Stanley, and software engineer Ryan Brodie, with the aim of helping young professional Muslims find partners within the community. It is backed by Hambro Perks, a venture firm co-founded by City veteran Rupert Hambro and former investment banker Dominic Perks, which backs British businesses with global ambitions. In January, Muzmatch raised £1.5M to expand internationally. Joining is free, but users can opt for a premium subscription which costs £19.99.
Muslim Dating App Muzmatch Raises £1.5M
STANDARD.CO.UK – Jan 30 – Muzmatch, a dating app for Muslims, has raised from a clutch of investors to expand overseas and grow the team. The three-year-old company, based in Aldgate, central London, was set up by Shahzad Younas, 33, an ex-investment banker for Morgan Stanley, and Ryan Brodie, 24, a software engineer. Users can choose not to show photos on their profiles or blur them. It also has a chaperoning option, whereby the in-app chats are sent to a guardian.
by Laura Onita
See full article at Standard.co.uk
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
YC-backed Muzmatch Doesn’t Want To Be Tinder For Muslims
TECH CRUNCH – Aug 3 – Muzmatch's dating app might look best described as a 'Tinder for Muslims' but co-founders Shahzad Younas and Ryan Brodie argue that Muzmatch is for people who are looking for a partner in order to get married. Two years after the launch of the first version of the app, Muzmatch has ~200k users, and is growing ~10%, month on month, according to the co-founders. The founders say the app has led to ~6k couples getting together so far. All users have to take a selfie via the app so their profile can be manually verified to help boost trust and keep out spammers. Users are also asked to rate others they have interacted with to promote positive behaviors.