International dating giant Dating.com Group has launched a $50 million corporate venture fund, the group’s co-founder Dmitry Volkov announced last week at an industry event in New York City.
The new vehicle will invest “up to $5 million” in online dating companies from the seed to Series B stages.
The Dating.com fund has already made an investment in a US dating app called S’More. Through this service, online dating aficionados from New York City and other cities can “learn more about a person before looking at their appearance.”
In addition to funding, Dating.com Group will make its technical talent and product advice available to startups. The corporate fund’s investments may end up in acquisitions, with ultimate IPO exit plans for Dating.com Group, TechCrunch reported.
“Over the last three years, 53 companies in the dating space have raised investment rounds totalling $230 million from a total of 134 VCs,” according to Volkov.
“The new mainstream product mechanic is yet to be discovered,” however, the businessman told TechCrunch.
In November 2019 Andrey Andreev, another Russian-born online dating tycoon, sold his business MagicLab to Blackstone, one of the world’s leading investment firms. The deal valued the company at approximately $3 billion.
New dating giant
Dating.com Group emerged last year from a $215 million merger between SDVentures and SOL Networks, two Internet holdings founded by Dmitry Volkov and Alla Gubenko, respectively.
The group claims 73 million registered users for its services across 100 countries, generating “more than $250 million in revenue.” Among these services are AfricanDate.com, AsianDate.com, AnastasiaDate, DateMyAge, Dating.com and Tubit.
One of the group’s properties, Dil Mil, touts itself as “the Tinder for South Asians,” targeting expat South Asians in the UK, US and Canada. It was acquired in late 2019 at a value of “up to $50 million,” according to company statements.
In total, Dating.com Group’s properties account for 33% of the market share for cross-border international dating, says the group, employing more than 500 people in seven countries.
One of the most prominent Russian-born Internet entrepreneurs, Volkov co-founded Social Discovery Ventures in 1998. He has also involved himself in several major VC funds as a limited partner and in Gagarin Capital as general partner. This VC firm plays a notable role in bringing technologies from Eastern Europe to Silicon Valley.
Volkov’s other centers of interests span from philosophy, to contemporary art, to philanthropy.
Sources: company information, Global Dating Insights (1, 2), TechCrunch, Wikipedia
