Dating app only active on a Thursday raises £2.5mln from investors

Thursday, a dating app only active once a week, has raised £2.5mln from investors. With many people finding the online scene overwhelming, the London-based start-up looks to “cut the crap” by effectively shutting off six out of seven days so people can focus on other aspects of their lives. READ: Bumble closes for a week to help employees with workplace stress It opens at 00.01 and shuts 24 hours later, with matches and conversations disappearing from the app, so users need to act quickly. They are connected to people in their area but can only match ten people per day to avoid ‘liking’ everyone to boost their chances. “It’s a fact: people are spending too much time on dating apps,” it says on its website. “Not only is the whole experience underwhelming, but pressure to find ‘the one’ is boring… There’s more to life than dating apps.” Since launching in May it has racked up 52,000 downloads in London and New York, the only locations where it’s available, for 110,000 ‘likes’ sent on Thursday 17 June, according to TechCrunch. However, it’s not clear how many of those turned into dates. The funding round was subscribed by Ascension Ventures, Jägermeister’s investment arm Best Nights VC, Connect Ventures and Monzo’s founder Tom Blomfield. The money will be used to make new senior and tech hires and potentially expanding to other cities. “We’ve got big plans with a clear mission, to change a culture of how people date. This is just the start and we will deliver,” co-founder George Rawlings, who started the app with Matt McNeill Love out of frustration for the dating scene, was reported as saying. So many singles out there Thursday has joined a crowded market, fighting share with giants such as Bumble Inc.’s (NASDAQ:BMBL) Bumble and Badoo, as well as Match Group Inc’s (NASDAQ:MTCH) Tinder, Match.com, Meetic, OkCupid, Hinge, PlentyOfFish, Ship and OurTime. Bumble, which also stands out from its peers as it requires women to make the first move, has made a blast on its IPO on Valentine’s Day this year. It saw paying users climb by 30% in the three months to 31 March. Match Group has also been doing well recently, with the average subscribers jumping 12% to 11.1mln in the same period. Another big competitor is Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), which has been rolling out its dating service over the past year or so. Ashley Madison, a 20-year-old website for married people looking to cheat on their partners, remains strong as it counted 60mln users in 2019 after 30mln people got their names leaked in a data breach six years ago. The UK stock market is perhaps lagging behind in the sector, with no companies for love seekers listed in London at the moment. AIM-listed Cupid plc changed name to Castle Street Investments plc in 2015 after selling all its dating businesses, namely Cupid, UniformDating and LoveBeginsAt after trading was hampered by the growing popularity of Tinder. ‘Hot girl summer’ There may as well be space for all these dating apps as the COVID-19 restrictions ease, with people bringing back the ‘hot girl summer’ meme as locked-down singles are ready to re-enter society. “As we head into summer, with a growing number of people getting vaccinated, we cannot help but be excited about the future,” Match Group’s chief executive Shar Dubey and chief operating officer and chief financial officer Gary Swidler told shareholders last month. “Exiting the first quarter, we are seeing improving trends across the portfolio. We are pleased with the way 2021 has begun and are optimistic that the rest of the year will continue this momentum,” they added, signing off with “Looking forward to a summer of love”.