Platonic Female Friend-Finding App Hey! VINA Raises $1.4m

Hey! VINA, the platonic friend-finding app for women has just raised $1.4m in funding.

The San Francisco-based company behind the app, VINA, secured the funding from New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Greenock Partners and Wildcat Venture Partners.

The funding round was also joined by two angel investors, Quora co-founder Charlie Cheever and Trailerpop founder & CEO Jon Vlassopulos.

The founders of VINA, Olivia Poole and Jen Aprahamian, created the company to build a portfolio of products designed to compliment the social lives of modern women.

Its flagship app, Hey! VINA, lets women swipe through the profiles of other members, pairing users up based on shared interests, mutual friends and location to help create platonic relationships.

When we spoke to founder Aprahamian earlier this year about why she wanted to build this kind of app, she said: “I travelled solo for work frequently and it was a very isolating experience. Instead of going to cocktail hours where I didn’t feel comfortable, I’d spend evenings in my hotel room ordering room service.

“I would’ve loved to have some girlfriends to get dinner with, but I felt too awkward to approach other women and say: “So, can we be friends and hang out?”, and I know I’m not alone.” ­

The startup also runs LadyBrag, an online platform that allows women to share and celebrate their accomplishments.

Speaking about its part in the funding round, NEA partner Jon Sakota told Fast Company: “There is a huge untapped opportunity for entrepreneurs to build technology products for female consumers. The talented team at VINA brings a very unique perspective to social networking for women, and I am very excited to watch them grow.”

When we spoke to VINA in April, the company said Hey! VINA had seen over 100,000 signups in its first two weeks.

And after securing the funding round, its founders said the app is now live in over 500 cities.

Read our interview with Poole and Aprahamian here.