Meme-Based Dating App Schmooze Secures $4 Million in Funding

Schmooze, the meme-driven dating app, has raised $4 million in a Series A funding round led by Elevation Capital, with participation from prominent angel investors. This comes after the platform previously raised $3.47 million from Inventus Capital Partners and others, bringing its total funding to nearly $7.5 million.

Launched in 2021 by Vidya Madhavan and Abhinav Anurag, Schmooze sets itself apart by leveraging memes and artificial intelligence (AI) to facilitate connections between users based on humor and shared interests. This is meant to be an alternative to “superficial” dating focuses like looks, and is instead meant to better reflect the personality of each user by forcing them to engage in what they personally think is funny.

The platform also focuses on AI-powered features, including “Genie AI” (which acts as a dating coach) and “Roast AI” (a comedic chatbot) that are designed to enhance user interaction and offer companionship. Schmooze has already attracted over 1 million users in India and recorded 900 million meme swipes, with a higher female-to-male ratio than typical dating platforms.

While the idea of a meme-driven dating platform can sound bizarre to some people, it has very real funding behind it. Only time will tell if the app retains its slow but notable growth, but the app’s site proudly states that it already has 1.2 million downloads with many more to come.