The pandemic could have doomed online dating. Instead, it sent singles swiping more than ever before. (From 2021)
found that while there were a number of new entrants into the online dating space, the venture capital didn’t follow. Without substantial backing from investors, dating startups have an even harder time competing with the bigger players.
Since 2019, though, a few dating startups have bucked the trend and hit it big. Hinge, which once marketed itself as “the anti Tinder,” was acquired by Match Group in 2019 . Bumble, founded by ex-Tinder employees as a female-friendly alternative to Tinder, raised $2.2 billion in its IPO this February, and has exceeded expectations on the public market.
Bumble’s success has been a flashpoint for the industry, says Alex Durrant, who founded the UK-based dating appin 2016. “We’ve had a ton of inbounds from investors, although we’re not fundraising right now,” says Durrant. “Suddenly people are like, ‘Maybe we need a dating app in our portfolio.’” According to Crunchbase, total funding for dating startups in the US has increased from $4.8 million in 2016 to more than $26 million in 2020—still representing a fraction of the overall VC industry.
Jigsaw, which expanded to the United States this year, tries to stand apart with its own gimmick: Profile photos are covered up with pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, and are only revealed through sending messages back and forth. Durrant says the goal of his app to get people to talk to each other, not to consume each others’ content like a social media feed. “For us, it’s all about building a connection with another person,” he says. “I think that’s the core issue that isn’t being solved.
Now that Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted in most parts of the country, young dating startups will face a new, and possibly more challenging, test: Whether they can survive the post-vax summer. It’s one thing for a fledgling dating app to compete with a Goliath like Tinder. It’s another to compete with newly reopened bars.
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