INDEPENDENT – Mar 13 – Amélie Guerard has 20 seconds to matchmake couples based on their profile photos. She works for start-up dating app Once. "I use my gut feeling. When you see the photo you know if people are going to get along, if they are party people or more creative types," she says.
Category: Once
New Irish Dating App “Once” Is Growing Fast
IRISH MIRROR – Mar 11 – Once, a brand new dating app, is set to take on the Irish market. Once combines digital dating technology and a team of human matchmakers, generating a specifically targeted daily match for users at noon each day.
Dating App Once Integrates With Wearables To Show Heart Rate
TECH CRUNCH – Jan 13 – Once, a dating app with ~600K users, announced an integration with Fitbit and Android Wear. Once lets users see their heart rate when they look at their matches. In the next version of the app, the user will be able to opt-in to a feature that will send their heart rate to their match once it's recorded. When you catch sight of your beloved and your heart starts racing, that's because of an adrenaline rush, said Dr. Reginald Ho, a cardiac electrophysiologist.
Dating App “Once” Returns To Old School Human Matchmaking
MASHABLE – Nov 13 – Once is a new dating app that has launched in UK. On Once, daters are chosen by human matchmakers. The app launched in France a few weeks ago and gained 150K users in less than a month.
Interview With Founder Of Once, A NYC Startup That Raised $3.5M
ALLEYWATCH – Aug 7 - Once is a new dating app that analyzes users' profile and picks one match per day for them. The startup has recently raised $3.5M.
Q: Who were your investors?
A: A couple of big European business angels and one VC fund: Partech Ventures.
Q: Tell us about your product.
A: Once a day, we send one professionally handpicked match to our members. Rather than focusing on volume, we put all of our efforts in one person.
Q: What inspired you to start the company?
A: I-UM, the #1 South Korean dating app that invented this concept.
Q: What market you are targeting and how big is it?
A: We are currently focusing on the US, France and the UK. Targeting 18-50 years old that are single and looking.
Q: What’s your business model?
A: It’s a Freemium model. The daily matches and communication is free.
Q: What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
A: Thanks to Tinder, it seems that the dating app industry is really hot right now.
Dating App Once Raised $3.5M
VENTURE BEAT – July 9 – New York-based app Once received a $3.5M seed round from Partech Ventures and some private investors. Once’s model is to send one match to each user at noon. Once users are paired up, they will see each other at the same time. Each person gets notified when the other person is looking at the profile. And, if both are interested, the app lets them talk. The app is similar to Coffee Meets Bagel which is not a coincidence. Both apps follow the lead of the South Korean app I-UM, founded in 2010.
by Sindy Nanclares
See full article at Venture Beat
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.