D.C.-based dating app Hinge announced today closing a successful Series A round of $4 million. With backing from several local investors, the dating startup hopes to further develop the popular app and explore other markets outside of D.C., Boston and New York.
While there are many social dating apps on the market, Hinge Co-founder Justin McLeod told TechCrunch that his app is the one people go to when they want to make lasting relationships, compared to others like Tinder. “When we ask our users, they say they use them differently," he said, "‘I use Tinder when I’m out and about or bored or want to mess around, and Hinge is where I meet the people I want to date.’” Saying this, he compared his product to a mobile Match.com that uses a matching algorithm to connect you with friends of your friends from Facebook. The hope is, TechCrunch asserts, that Hinge can identify the mysterious things that pull people together in the dating world.
Until August, Hinge was a purely D.C.-focused project, but then it expanded to Boston and New York City. With that scaling, Hinge was able to double its users to 60,000 and keep its return rate high, with about 85 percent of downloaders remaining active a week later, and 75 percent active a month later.
After its recent successes, it makes sense why Hinge was able to close on such a nice round of funding. Additionally, the startup was able to draw in some big names for backing. Here locally, Fortify VC, Militello Capital, 1776 Co-founder Evan Burfield and an undisclosed founder of LivingSocial backed hinge in this latest funding. Elsewhere, New York's Great Oaks Venture Capital led the round, while The Social+Capital Partnership, Red Swan, 500 Startups, StubHub founder Jeff Fluhr, former Facebook Director of Business Development David Fisch, Graph Ventures, Eniac Ventures, Middleland Capital and former Facebook engineering lead Prashant Malik also took part.
