Dating site Engage.com raises $5M — Psst, try this out while it is free
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Engage.com, the Internet dating company which gets your friends to help pitch prospective dates for you, said today it has raised $5 million in a first round of funding.
We wrote about this company a year ago. The good part is, new members who are daters will receive a free six-month membership, or a $200 value — at least while Engage remains in testing mode. Basically, it divides you into two groups. 1) All adults, single or married, are welcome to play matchmaker, and help their single friends find that special one. It will always be free to be a matchmaker; 2) Only singles can be daters. If you are single, you can be a dater and a matchmaker.
It is difficult to tell how well this company is doing. We haven’t seen any signs of major pick-up in Engage.com’s traffic, at least via the unreliable data offered by Alexaholic.com. However, the company tells us it has over 200 percent growth in month over month new registrations (April, 270%; May; 202%; June; 267%), and Alexaholic show traffic hitting more significant levels most recently.
Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV) led the round, with current seed investors Revolution Ventures, The Founders Fund and Josh Kopleman also participating. Steve Baloff, a general partner at ATV, will take a seat on the Engage board.
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
