Search for news on dating apps, and you'll read a ton of dissatisfaction.
Yet companies in the dating app market earned $5.61 billion in revenue last year, up nearly $2 billion from 2020, showing a growing global demand for online dating services.
Palo Alto-based Schmooze thinks there's a better way to serve these users. The company, legally known as Ranga Media Inc., provides an app that connects users based on the memes they share and encourages people to match based on a similar sense of humor.
Founded in 2021, the startup was one of 16 Silicon Valley companies to compete in Bay Area Inno Madness earlier this year. Schmooze's founder, Vidya Madhavan, earned her M.B.A. from Stanford University and founded several other startups before starting Schmooze, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Schmooze recently raised $3.2 million in seed funding from Inventus Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and others. The company plans to allow users to upload and share their own memes on the app in the next two months, according to TechCrunch.
Read on for more details on the seed funding deals from this past week.
ScholarSite Inc. (dba Sphere), San Francisco, $4.3 million: Felicis Ventures led the round for this provider of online professional education specializing in machine learning and data science.
Ranga Media Inc. (dba Schmooze), Palo Alto, $3.2 million: Inventus Capital led the round for this developer of a meme-based dating app. Silicon Valley Quad, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Graph Ventures also participated.
