To swipe or not to swipe, that is the question.
Match.com sparked the online dating industry in 1995, though Craigslist, AOL Instant Messenger and other early internet sites also played a part.
The Dallas company now known as The Match Group has become an online dating behemoth with more than a dozen brands under its umbrella, including Tinder, Plenty of Fish, Our Time, OkCupid and Hinge.
Online dating has grown into an $8.7 billion industry worldwide and is expected to exceed 440 million users in 2023, according to Statista. In the U.S., nearly 22% of the population uses online dating services and the market will generate $2.5 billion in revenue this year.
Venture capital firms poured $31 million into dating apps in 2021, according to Crunchbase, and new formats are emerging as founders experiment with adding audio, video and other forms of media.
You will find more infographics at Statista
Bumble switched up the formula in 2014 when it launched as a dating app that put women in control of initiating messages. The company was founded by former Tinder executive Whitney Wolfe Herd.
Over the past decade, more dating apps have popped up to serve just about every person and preference. The competition includes eHarmony, Grindr, Her, Stitch and Zoosk.
Originally based in San Francisco, Zoosk was acquired by Berlin-based Spark Networks SE for $255 million in 2019 and closed its office in the city that same year. Also in 2019, Facebook began testing its own dating site and launched it in the U.S., according to The Verge.
Here are eight dating apps and services that are still in the Bay Area. All funding data is from Crunchbase and PitchBook.
- Coffee Meets Bagel (S.F.) — Describes itself as "the meaningful dating app for people sick of swiping" and sends members matches every day at noon. It was founded in 2011 by Arum Kang, Dawoon Kang and Soo Kang. The company has raised more than $23 million through a Series B. The startup was one of the S.F. Business Times' Fast 100 companies of 2019.
- Tawkify (S.F.) — Founded in 2012 by Kenneth Shaw and E. Jean Carroll, the site is not a swipeable dating app but a matchmaking service. Users create a basic profile which their matchmaker builds out. The service also plans dates for its members. The company has raised more than $8 million through a Series A round, and went through Stanford's StartX accelerator in 2014.
- Schmooze (Palo Alto) — Founded in 2021 by Vidya Madhavan and Abhinav Anurag, the app encourages matching and flirting based on internet memes. The company raised a $3.2 million seed round last year.
- Bloom (Oakland) — Legally known as Together Project, Inc., it was founded in 2020 by Lauren Vegter, who also goes by the name Luna Ray. Bloom aims to provide a safe online community for queer, sex-positive and "edge-of-culture" folks (such as polyamorous couples). The company has raised $2.5 million through a seed round.
- 2RedBeans (Dublin) — Founded in 2010 by Jeff Shi, Paul Lo and Zhao Qinghua as a dating app for Chinese people who live outside of China. It was inspired by JDate, a dating site for Jewish people, according to an NBC News article from 2014. The founders went through Stanford's StartX accelerator in 2014. It has raised $2.3 million through a seed round.
- Birdy (S.F.) — Legally known as Personality System, LLC, it was founded in 2019 by Juliette Swann and uses a personality test to match people. The company has raised $500,000 in pre-seed funding.
- Kiki (S.F.) — Founded in 2019 by Manel Tomas and Rubén Juan, it describes itself as a "friendship network" for meeting new people in over 150 countries. The company has raised $250,000 in seed funding.
- Delight (S.F.) — Founded in 2022 by Milad Moh and Inaz Novin, the company was in Y Combinator's Summer 2022 batch and describes itself as a dating app for people who want to "date only one person at a time." Total funding unknown.
