Interview: How Rekindle is Creating Second-Time Love Stories
Global Dating Insights had the pleasure of speaking with Abhishek Kashyap, Founder of Rekindle, to discuss how the dating platform is looking to empower singles and challenge unfair stigmas.
- Can you tell us about the kind of person that Rekindle is looking to serve? Why is it important that this demographic has its own dating platform? Which regions / countries does the platform currently cover?
Abhishek: Rekindle essentially aims to solve the challenges faced by divorced, widowed, and separated individuals in India, primarily within the typical age group of 32-50 (although not limited to this range).
In India, a traditional country, there is a stigma attached to divorcees and widows/widowers. On typical dating apps, previously married men are often treated as second-class citizens, while single women are hesitant to commit. Similarly, previously married women may receive attention, but Indian men do not consider them as potential long-term matches.
After interviewing multiple people, we have concluded that this problem needs to be addressed, and a separate, non-judgmental dating platform is required for these individuals to overcome biases.
Currently, our focus is on India; however, we believe that traditional attitudes exist among Indians worldwide, not just in India. Therefore, our platform has global ambitions and targets the Indian diaspora.
We have also observed that cultures similar to India, such as the UAE, Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia, etc., exhibit similar social structures and behavioural patterns within previously married communities.
2. What inspired you to create Rekindle?
Abhishek: Having witnessed separation and divorces within my own family, I developed a keen understanding of the profound physical and emotional toll that the absence of companionship can take on individuals.
Throughout my life, I have embraced various dating apps, from Tinder to Hinge, wholeheartedly. However, it was during this journey that I encountered a striking reality: the challenges faced by those who were previously married in the realm of dating apps.
Their plight resonated deeply with me, as I observed their struggles firsthand. It became evident that there was a pressing need for a solution tailored specifically to their unique circumstances. The idea to address this issue intuitively took root within me, fueled by a desire to create a more inclusive and supportive dating platform
3. How does the platform help these individuals to connect? What is the user journey / experience like?
Abhishek: We are not just another matchmaking app . Rekindle Club, a social connection app that addresses the issue of loneliness amongst this demographic, providing a lifeline of genuine relationships, vibrant community engagement and a safe space.
Currently we have a matchmaking feature based on location and marital status. We don’t want users to swipe mindlessly hence have restricted them to 20 right swipes/day.
Also we have a Feature called “Fridate” where every Friday we send 4 profiles based on your swiping patterns. The idea is that people chat on Fridays and hopefully go out on dates on the weekends.
We are also developing a feature called “Metime” where people can go out with friends through our seamless channel partner integration, speak to experts, and create their own content. We are super excited about this feature as we believe this is real value creation and actually solves the loneliness problem.
4. How is Rekindle ensuring that users have a positive and safe experience on the platform?
Abhishek: We have a team who manually checks each and every profile and their bios. We have blocked close to 2k profiles last month on this basis. We are a no-nonsense serious social app. We are also experimenting with LinkedIn as a verification feature incentivising men to verify through it.
We are also speaking to psychologists to create a short personality assessment test without asking users too many questions. This way we know what people really are rather than what they think they are.
5. What’s next for Rekindle? Do you have any targets in mind for the rest of 2023?
Abhishek: Rekindle is solving for loneliness and social isolation. Product wise we are excited to launch “Metime” in another couple of months and test. Also we did 3 IRL events and planning to scale it across the country targeting 10 Offline events monthly.
We also have surveyed divorced Indians in USA and have realised there is a soaring demand there. We will be launching in USA, UK and UAE markets by the end of this year.
You can find out more about Rekindle by visiting its website.