The $4 million series A round led by Elevation Capital has closed for Schmooze, a meme-based dating app powered by AI. The creators of UltraHuman, The Souled Store, Mosaic Wellness, and Paytm were among the angel investors who took part in the round. The site, which is driven by more than 1 billion meme interactions, will continue to prioritize growing its user base acquisition while utilizing the funds to improve its AI.
The creators of Schmooze, Vidya Madhavan and Abhinav Anurag, claim that the company was founded as a result of their peers’ dissatisfaction with the dating apps that were available at the time, which prioritized matching users based solely on attractiveness and produced unsatisfactory interactions. They therefore set out to develop a platform that paired people according to their personalities and sense of humor; memes turned out to be the key to determining compatibility and establishing deep friendships.
Schmooze claims that in the ten months since its introduction in India, it has racked up over a million subscribers and 900 million meme swipes. Comparing the platform to other popular dating services, the company said that the ratio of female to male members is three times higher.
Vidya Madhavan reminisced about the app’s development, saying, “At Stanford, I saw how sick people were of the superficial swiping culture. Beyond appearances, they yearned for a deeper kind of connection. Then it dawned on me: Gen Z’s new language of connection is memes. Memes are windows into our personality, not just amusing images. In order to create Schmooze, where your meme swipes are the key to identifying your ideal mate, we coupled this understanding with AI.
Co-founder Abhinav Anurag stated that the company is swiftly diversifying into various types of content.
Schmooze’s AI engine develops with every encounter with a meme, creating unique digital characters that go beyond mere meme classification. The AI provides amusing insights about possible matches through “Schmooze Predicts,” like “You both have annoying relatives.” These playful forecasts aid in icebreakers and improve the quality of conversations. Moreover, the AI engine—dubbed “Genie”—serves as a sophisticated coach, boosting users’ narrative skills to increase authenticity and user expressiveness.
The Indian and worldwide dating app markets are changing quickly as more people look for meaningful interactions in an increasingly digital environment. Speaking about the investment, Elevation Capital principal Amit Aggarwal claimed that Schmooze is an experience that speaks to the mentality of today’s young and provides a vibe-check that is in line with their distinct cultural vernacular.
Schmooze wants to support Gen Z in overcoming social isolation and loneliness in addition to dating. Features like Rant AI, a digital journal that reacts to user inputs, and Roast AI, which mimics talks with a stand-up comedian, are available for this.