AngelList, Inflection Point Ventures bet on online dating platform TrulyMadly

Crescere Technologies, which owns and operates TrulyMadly dating app on Monday said that it has raised Rs 8.1 crore (about $1.12 million) in a bridge funding round, dubbed as pre-Series A.

San Francisco headquartered  investment crowdfunding platform Angelist, venture capital firm Inflection Point Ventures and local angel investment network The Chennai Angels participated in the round.

Other investors included entrepreneurs and chief experience officers (CXOs) from startups such as Unacademy, Haptik, Innov8, AirBnB, and Times Internet, among others, according to a statement.

The New Delhi headquartered startup will use the funds to scale its team size and operations and also expand its technology.

Established in 2014 by Hitesh Dhingra, Sachin Bhatia, and Rahul Kumar, TrulyMadly is a dating app for adults aged 25 years or older.

“We are thrilled to receive overwhelming support and backing from a distinguished list of investors, with several of India’s leading entrepreneurs and startup executives coming on board as we undertake a completely new journey with TrulyMadly,” Snehil Khanor, co-founder, TrulyMadly said.

In 2015, TrulyMadly, whose parent firm was previously called TrulyMadly Matchmakers, raised $5.5 million in what it then called Series A round of funding from Helion and Kae Capital. It bagged an undisclosed amount in a seed round of funding from angel investors Rajesh Magow, Deep Kalra, and Manish Vij, in 2014.

Amit Gupta, who earlier co-founded home rental service startup FellaHomes and sold it to Y combinator backed ZiffyHomes, joined TrulyMadly as co-founder and chief technology officer (CTO) last year in April, the statement added.

“We have a new team and a new strategic direction that has already started yielding results, putting us firmly on the road to reclaiming the position of India’s most loved serious dating app,” Khanor added. 

The startup competes with Tinder and Aisle, among others in this segment. The platform is available for both iOS and Android users. It has about 5 million downloads on Google PlayStore. 

Set up in 2010 by serial entrepreneur Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi, AngelList is a website for startups, angel investors, and job-seekers looking to work at startups. AngelList India has backed 140 startups so far, including edtech company Konfinity, fintech platform BharatPe and shared micro-mobility startup Yulu Bikes.

Founded in 2017 by Ankur Mittal, Dipanjan Basu, K S Adarsh Dikshith, Mitesh Shah, Sathya Pramod, Sumeet Kapur, Vinay Bansal, and Vinod Bansal, Inflection Point Ventures is a venture capital firm that helps startups to get funding from top investors.