matchmaking
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Info Edge Turned a Job Board Into a Bet on India’s Internet
Naukri pays for much of the ambition behind 99acres, Jeevansathi and a far-reaching startup portfolio. Now AI is helping the recruitment business while disrupting another member of the family.
Matrimony.com built a business on being particular
Language, community, income, family: the owner of BharatMatrimony made India’s marriage preferences its product. Its harder match has been finding growth beyond the search for a spouse.
Three Day Rule's $6,300 Cure for Swipe Fatigue - and the Awkward AI Bet That Could Change It
For 15 years, Three Day Rule sold busy singles a human antidote to endless swiping. Now its new owner is trying to bottle that judgment in an app - without turning romance into a chatbot relay.
Two Riot Vets Bet $49M That a Game Could Feel Like Church
They left Riot to make an online world that welcomed the people MMOs usually scare off. Palia found 10 million of them - and still cost the founders the studio.
Ditto
Ditto is a Berkeley-born AI matchmaker that skips the swiping. Students text their preferences, and every Wednesday Ditto sends one curated match over iMessage - with the time, place, and coffee-date logistics already handled. Founded by UC Berkeley students Allen Wang and Eric Liu, it went viral through sorority group chats, grew to roughly 100,000 users across about ten campuses, and raised a $9.2M seed led by Peak XV. Its bet: dating apps optimize for time-on-app, but people actually want a good date in real life.
Triumph
Triumph (Triumph Labs) is a San Francisco company that turns ordinary mobile games into real-money skill tournaments. Its plug-and-play SDK lets developers add cash competitions with a single line of code, while Triumph handles the hard parts behind the scenes: payments, KYC identity checks, state-by-state legal compliance, geolocation, matchmaking, anti-cheat, and payouts. Founded in 2021 by Stanford dropouts Jake Brooks and Jared Geller, the company raised $14.1M (a $10.2M Series A led by General Catalyst plus a $3.9M seed) and also runs its own consumer apps - Triumph Arcade for skill games and Rips for card collectibles.
Coffee Meets Bagel
Coffee Meets Bagel is a relationship-focused dating app founded by Korean-American sisters Arum, Dawoon, and Soo Kang. Built on the idea that quality beats quantity, it serves curated daily matches rather than infinite swipes - aimed at people who want commitment, not entertainment.