What the business is
Dating app that matches users on their meme preferences and sense of humour, with AI to build user personas
The bet
Matching on shared humour via memes, instead of looks and swiping, will retain users, especially women, in India's growing online dating market
Starting capital
$3M seed in 2021, then a $4M (INR 33 crore) Series A in September 2024 led by Elevation Capital
How it started
Schmooze was founded in 2021 by Vidya Madhavan and Abhinav Anurag. Madhavan says the idea came from meeting her husband through shared humour, and from noticing at Stanford that people were tired of superficial swiping. It raised a $3M seed in 2021 and first served US users.
What happened
Schmooze pivoted its focus to India in 2023. It says that in ten months since the India launch it attracted over 1M users and 900M meme swipes, with 30-35% of users female and 72% of chat rooms two-way active. The daily meme cap of 200 free, with 400 for INR 49, is meant to manage costs and set expectations. In September 2024 it raised a $4M Series A led by Elevation Capital, with angels from Ultrahuman, The Souled Store, Mosaic Wellness and Paytm.
What has to be true
Founders saw users tire of looks-based swiping and wanted connection through humour
The India market for online dating was drawing renewed investor interest
A daily meme cap controls costs and keeps match quality predictable
Female-to-male ratio and two-way chats gave the company evidence to show investors (self-reported)
What can be applied
Schmooze's Series A rests on self-reported engagement from its India relaunch, not on its original US start, so the claims stay unverified.
Aftermath
As of 2024-09-18 Schmooze had closed a $4M Series A and was planning AI features and expansion into smaller Indian cities. All user and engagement figures in the Inc42 report are the company's own claims.
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