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Venture Capital fund IDG Ventures India has invested an undisclosed amount in a casual dating app, iCrushiFlush. The Pre- Series A funds raised by the startup will be used for marketing and product enhancement.
Founded in 2014 by former Hungama CTO, Amit Vora along with two other co-founders, iCrushiFlush is a dating app that helps people connect to each other around their location and make new friends to build relationships. The app enables like minded individuals to connect on a personal level.
According to Amit, founder iCrushiFlush, “The app has a presence in over 12,000 towns across India and the next 200 million internet users will be coming from tier 2 and tier 3 cities of the country.
Quick Facts:
# About five lakhs downloads across India
# Demographics of people downloading the app include aged between 18 to 25
# Growth of 25 per cent on month-on-month basis
# App has presence in over 12,000 towns across the country
Amit Vora has over a decade of experience in creating digital products for global corporations like Motorola, DTS and Reliance Communication. He decided flag off his startup based on his understanding of the Indian consumers’ need for connects. Amit said, “I had an idea for location based dating and matching a couple of years ago. We then built the right technology platform that matches and engages across diversified India, which we term ‘Inner Bharat’. With changing cultural dynamics in India, dating is now accepted as part of our lifestyle. Thus, this is the right time.”
How to use the app?
- The app is available on iOS and Android platform and is witnessed to be trending the Android Playstore and App store for the last 6 months.
- As the app is downloaded it will ask for a login through facebook basis which it will provide information about the nearest person available (signed in to the app) revealing his/her age, location distance and an option to either send a crush or flush it out.
- The reason behind sending a crush and flushing it out lies in the matter of fact that the app connects to that person to befriend them or reject them.
- Beyond the simple swipe based “Crush” & “Flush”, the app also allows users to use in-app gifting to ‘break-the-ice’ and reveal their identity. This becomes a catalyst for increasing the mutual matches and connects.
The app has an easy-to-use approach for users, and unique UI.
According to Karthik Prabhakar, VP- IDG Ventures, India, “This is an exciting space for venture investments and iCrushiFlush has clear differentiators which is helping it pace the market. Beyond the product and the space, what stood out for me was the team Amit had setup. Their single minded focus for success resonated with our vision and this was proven by their metrics. I am confident that they are going to change the way dating is perceived in India.”
Bangalore based, IDG Ventures India is an India focused technology venture capital fund. The VC firm recently sold its stake in Flipkart. IDG has invested in over 30 startups in India including CLoudcherry, Zivame, Lenskart, Nestaway, Iprof, Aujus, Agile Financial Technologies, Firstcry, Adadyn and more across internet, mobile, enterprise service, engineering and SaaS domains. IDG ventures is also on a look out to raise funds for its second venture capital fund.
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