As part of the business expansion, tech-focused Betterhalf.ai plans to utilize the fund into boosting app engagement and building monetization features.
Betterhalf.ai India’s first and only matrimony app without the direct involvement of parents has recently raised $3M as part of its Pre-Series A funding. The startup was a participant in the Y Combinator W21 batch and the funding saw the participation of venture capital firms including S2 Capital and Quiet Capital and marquee angel investors like Kunal Shah and Samvit Ramadurgam.
As part of the business expansion, tech-focused Betterhalf.ai plans to utilize the fund into boosting app engagement and building monetization features. Also, a significant part of the funds will be allocated for Betterhalf.ai product discovery across organic channels.
Matchmaking is very broken and users have to waste a lot of time and effort on matrimony apps. I appreciate the strength and relentless focus of the Betterhalf team in using technology to create an improved user experience in the Indian matrimony market. Betterhalf’s strategy to connect the brides and groom without parents’ intervention is what makes it super powerful and differentiated – Saurabh Garg, Founder/CBO, Nobroker and Investor/Business Advisor, Betterhalf.ai Betterhalf.ai was founded in 2016 by Rahul Namdev – an MIT educated AI expert and Pawan Gupta – a serial entrepreneur, looking to settle in their personal life. However, Rahul had to call off his first engagement and on the other hand, Pawan was attending a series of dates set up on outdated matrimony apps which were designed to be used by parents, and often matchmade couples on conventional criteria like religion, caste, community, etc. On the other hand, western match-making apps were designed on a casual and hookup-focused approach.
Rahul and Pawan then teamed up to build Betterhalf, an AI matrimony app that offers the world’s fastest matching with a single click (US Patent Application No. 16/777,773). It features a premium pool of working professionals from more than 25,000 companies in India. Unlike the conventional matrimony apps, Betterhalf.ai focuses on behavioural matching criteria – compatibility matching with likes, dislikes, and interests. Currently, the app facilitates over a million matches and a thousand marriages across a user base of 700K urban millennials. With extensive business plans, the app is witnessing $75,000 in monthly revenue and is growing at 30% every month.
Commenting on the fundraise, Pawan Gupta, Co-founder of Betterhalf.ai said, “The closing of this round post Y Combinator Demo Day is a marker of the investors’ confidence on readiness of 100M urban Indians for a new age matrimony app and allows us to take the company from $1m run rate to $5m run rate for our next Series A round.”
Betterhalf.ai combines a modern user interface, personalized recommendations and puts the future bride and groom in the driver’s seat. We think that the AI-based matrimony startup has taken the best of western dating apps, customized those learnings to the Indian matrimony market, and created a one-of-a-kind product that is going to reinvent the matrimony experience for young Indian single – David Greenbaum, Partner, Quiet Capital
Furthermore, the company is planning to witness a steep surge in its current user base and expects to touch 1M users by the end of 2021. Prior to this, Betterhalf.ai raised a $2.3M seed round from Y Combinator, Tribe Capital, Nurture Ventures, and Saurabh Garg, Nobroker Founder/CBO and Shailesh Rao, Former MD of Google India and Former Partner of TPG Capital.
Source: Business World
