01 April 2016, USA : San Francisco-based dating app Dil Mil has raised $2.7 million from a clutch of investors including Nelstone Ventures, Transmedia Capital, Maiden Lane Ventures, CSC Upshot along with entrepreneurs and angel investors. Naval Ravikant—founder of Angel List, Kunal Shah—founder & CEO of Freecharge, Sameer Parwani— founder & CEO of CouponDunia, Vijay Ullal—founder of Victory Ventures have also participated in the latest round.
KJ Dhaliwal, Chief Executive Dil Mil Inc realized apps like Tinder, Hinge and Coffee Meets Bagel weren’t inclusive of the needs of the South Asian community, where dating can be taboo and arranged marriages still occur. Mr. Dhaliwal said 90% of South Asians marry within their own community and those users needed their own app.
Earlier in Ma
y 2015, the South Asian community focused dating app had earlier raised $1.1 from a string of angel investors.
Unlike most mobile dating apps that show only potential matches within a certain geographic radius, Dil Mil allows users to match anywhere in the world. The app is most popular in the U.S., but there are also many users in the U.K., Canada and, increasingly, India.
Dil Mil is beginning to test ways to help users with long-distance matches connect. The company is beta testing a new video chat feature. In the coming years, the company hopes to use virtual reality to simulate dates for its long distance users.
Dhaliwal said parents who hear about marriages through the app encourage their children to use it, especially their daughters.
“They tell their kids to get on it,” Mr. Dhaliwal said.
