Shaadi Owner Buys 25% Stake In Indian Dating App Maker

The owner of Shaadi has bought a 25% stake in dating app company Thrill.

Thrill Pte LTD are a mobile dating startup that released Thrill, an Indian dating app that matches nearby singles.

Founded in November 2012 by Americans Devin Serago and Josh Israel, Thrill initially gave women power over the user base – letting female users rate men with a thumbs up or thumbs down.

However last August they pivoted, turning the service into a more straightforward location-based Tinder-style swiping app.

And now People Media, which owns Shaadi, has bought a 25% stake in the mobile dating company, in a deal estimated at around $1m.

According to The Economic Times, People Media have also merged their social and dating platform Fropper with Thrill.

Founder and chief executive of People Media, Anupam Mittal, said combining the two apps made it “the largest entity in the online dating space in India, from users and revenue perspective.”

Thrill said they have had 1m downloads in India, and Fropper claims around 6m members.

In addition to letting users chat and share stickers, Thrill are currently working on bringing an audio and video verification feature, so users can check people are who they say they are.

Visit Thrill here.