Former Tinder executive Taru Kapoor has launched the dating app Rivet, which opened to U.S. users on September 24. The company completed a $10.5 million seed round, with investors including Peak XV Partners, Shine Capital, and Blume Ventures. Former Tinder and OkCupid CEO Elie Seidman is an early investor and serves as an advisor during the development phase.

Kapoor joined Tinder in 2015, overseeing operations in India, and later expanded her role to South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Turkey, spending about eight years with Tinder and Match Group before leaving in 2023. Co-founder Rajat Sahni previously managed the used car business at CarDekho. The engineering and machine learning teams are primarily based in India, with an office in the National Capital Region of Delhi.

The product categorizes users into Daters, who are looking to date, and Matchers, who help others find matches. The system first ranks potential matches based on preferences, interests, and dating intentions, and then allows other users, invited friends, or Elite Matchers to judge the suitability of the pair. Daters receive only a few curated introductions at a time, which may include types they would typically swipe away. Kapoor noted that after swiping through about 200 people on Bumble or Hinge, judgments become quicker and more transactional.

Before its launch, Rivet was tested in Charlotte. In June, Kapoor mentioned that the app had thousands of users. A Bloomberg interview described Matchers as volunteers tasked with scoring compatibility for strangers. A circulated release description stated that strangers could facilitate introductions and receive monetary rewards once a match is successful. The company's public statement did not clarify the compensation rules as being based on engagements.

The $10.5 million will be used for product development, distribution, and expansion in the U.S. Once a match is successful, Daters will leave, and Matchers do not need to be single themselves. The funding currently comes from the seed round, not subscription revenue. The app has not yet disclosed the number of paying users.

In terms of market mechanics, while buyers under the old model aimed to maintain single subscription users, Rivet shifts the buyer to those willing to vote for strangers. The driving events are the seed round and the U.S. launch, not matchmaking transactions. Funds from Peak XV and other investors are entering the product, but it remains unclear whether returns will flow to the introducers. The beneficiaries are new applications that differentiate through manual screening, while sliding apps that charge based on duration are under pressure.

Source: Public Information