SMITTEN
15.9.2022 13:02:36 CEST | Business Wire | Press release
Dating app Smitten has raised a $10M Series A from Makers Fund, Possible Ventures, Wonder Invest and current shareholders ByFounders, ProFounders, Tennin, and Smitten's board member and Vivino founder Heini Zachariassen. Smitten, the most popular dating app in Iceland and the second most popular in Denmark, will use the financing to grow its team and to expand to new markets as they woo Gen Zers with their fresh, gamified approach to dating.
“My co-founder, Asgeir, and I share an intense interest in how people connect and communicate,” says David Simonarson, Smitten Co-Founder and CEO. “After years of creating social consumer apps, we fell in love with the online dating space and launched Smitten in 2020. We created personality-based games and fun interactive profiles to make it easy for strangers to form meaningful connections. Seeing how much our users love Smitten, we believe we can become the leading player in online dating for Generation Z.”
Smitten is founded by David Simonarson, CEO, and Asgeir Visir, Designer, and was released by the founders and its CTO, Magnus Olafsson. Smitten mixes games, entertainment, and flirting to jumpstart conversations and help users engage more seamlessly. Smitten's fun and creative approach to dating has struck a chord with Gen Zers, proven by the app’s more than 200 million swipes to date and whopping 30%+ stickiness rate. Most dating apps leave people to convert a match into a conversation with awkward starts that lead nowhere. Smitten makes getting into a conversation as easy as swiping through use of games, interactive profiles and icebreakers. Smitten gets users into fun, quality conversations regardless of their conversation skills, and has found that more than 60% of Smitten matches result in a post-match interaction vs 11% on industry-leading app, Tinder*.
The key to Smitten’s post-match interactions are mini-games people can play on each other’s profiles. “Our questionnaire game, Guessary, allows you to get to know the other person you are viewing by guessing how they answered a series of Yes-and-No questions,” explained Asgeir Visir, Smitten Co-Founder and Designer. “You could be answering questions like ‘Have they ever been arrested?’ or ‘Do they like pineapple on their pizza?’ and you would get immediate feedback if you answered correctly or not. Another fun game, Lie Detector, is inspired by the age-old social game Two Truths and Lie, where people add three statements about themselves to their profile, and you have one chance to spot the lie. These games are designed for users to get to know the person they are viewing before deciding if they want to like them or not. And the beautiful part is when you match with someone, the results of the games are posted in the chat and act as an icebreaker, making it so much easier to initiate a fun conversation.”
“Social discovery and gaming is an increasingly interesting intersection, and the team at Smitten have created an amazingly fun experience that truly strikes a chord with young adults,” said Alli Ottarson, Makers' lead on the deal. “Having spent time building a strong relationship with the founders David and Ásgeir, we have been privileged to a front row seat to follow Smitten´s success. We share a common vision for how the next generation will meet and interact, and we’re thrilled to be a part of the Smitten journey."
To learn more about Smitten, please visit smittendating.com.
ABOUT SMITTEN
Smitten is on a mission to make the most fun dating app in the world. Through creative, unique profile games and entertaining content, Smitten transforms how people view online dating. While operating at the intersection of dating, gaming, and entertainment, Smitten gives its users superpowers by making it as easy as swiping to get into a fun and meaningful conversation. Smitten outperforms the industry-leading dating app regarding post-match interactions, with more than 60% of matches progressing to some interaction. Smitten is founded in Iceland by co-founders David Orn Simonarson, CEO, and Asgeir Visir, UX Designer. The seasoned duo has been working together creating social apps to connect people for the past ten years. The team's mission is to create the most fun dating app in the world.
*per research at https://arxiv.org/abs/1607.01952
About Makers Fund
Makers Fund is a global interactive entertainment venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments. Makers is dedicated to furthering growth and innovation in the interactive entertainment industry. With more than 90 portfolio companies to date, Makers provides founders strategic value that is deeply catered to companies across the value chain in the industry. For more information, visit makersfund.com.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220915005317/en/
About Business Wire
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Duna, Built by Stripe Veterans, Raises €30 Million CapitalG-led Series A to Solve Business Identity For The Internet5.2.2026 15:00:00 CET | Press release
Duna, the identity fintech founded by two Stripe alumni, today announced a €30 million Series A funding round led by CapitalG, Alphabet’s independent growth fund. Existing investors Index Ventures, Puzzle Ventures and Snowflake Chairman Frank Slootman also participated in the round. The company, based in Germany and the Netherlands, was launched in 2023 by Duco van Lanschot, who was head of Benelux and DACH at Stripe for three years, and David Schreiber, who spent six years at Stripe where he ran the company’s largest global business unit, including the core card payment platform. In May 2025, the company announced a €10.7 million seed round led by Index Ventures. The latest fundraise brings Duna’s total funding to more than €40 million. Duna’s mission is to build global trust infrastructure by providing a digital passport for every business. Over time, this will evolve into a network for shareable identity and one-click onboarding. Today Duna’s AI-native business identity platform ser
AI-Powered Experian Assistant for Model Risk Management Wins 2026 BIG Innovation Award5.2.2026 15:00:00 CET | Press release
Highlights how Experian’s AI capabilities help global financial institutions keep regulatory documentation aligned with rapid model innovations Experian today announced that its recently launched, AI‑powered Experian Assistant for Model Risk Management has been awarded the 2026 BIG Innovation Award in the Innovative Products category. Recognizing trailblazers across industries since 2014, this global award celebrates exceptional innovation and the value it brings to a recipient’s clients, stakeholders and community. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260205042051/en/ Experian's recently launched, AI-powered Experian Assistant for Model Risk Management has been awarded the 2026 BIG Innovation Award in the Innovative Products category. Fully integrated into the Experian Ascend Platform™ and powered by ValidMind technology, Experian Assistant for Model Risk Management helps accelerate model validation, improve audit
LTIMindtree Recognized as a Leader in Everest Group Payments IT Services PEAK Matrix® Assessment 20255.2.2026 14:30:00 CET | Press release
LTIMindtree [NSE: LTIM, BSE: 540005], a leading global technology consulting and digital solutions provider, has been positioned as a Leader in the Everest Group Payments IT Services PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2025. This recognition is for being a strategic transformation partner that combines modernization scale, platform alliances, and innovation across real-time, digital assets, and ensure secure, regulator-ready payment environments. Everest Group highlighted LTIMindtree’s strong market impact and vision and capability in delivering largescale payments across issuers, acquirers, payment processors, card networks, and FinTechs. The assessment comes at a time when enterprises are rapidly modernizing legacy payments platforms to support real-time, cross-border, and ISO 20022 compliant payment environments, while enhancing resiliency, interoperability, and regulatory compliance. LTIMindtree stands out for its product engineering expertise across major payment platforms like Finastra GPP/P
PubNub Achieves SOC 3 Compliance, Reinforcing Commitment to Security, Trust, and Transparency5.2.2026 14:00:00 CET | Press release
PubNub, the real-time communications platform that powers low-latency, event-driven logic across modern application architectures, is pleased to announce that it has achieved SOC 3 compliance. This latest attestation highlights PubNub’s continuous dedication to providing a secure and trusted platform for building and scaling interactive online experiences. The SOC 3 report affirms that PubNub’s systems meet the Trust Services Criteria for security, availability, and confidentiality. Unlike SOC 2 reports, which are restricted to existing customers or partners due to the level of operational detail they include, SOC 3 reports are designed for broad, public distribution. This transparency enables anyone to verify that PubNub adheres to the stringent controls required by the SOC 2 framework, providing proof of robust information security and operational integrity. This achievement adds to PubNub’s extensive compliance portfolio, which includes SOC 2 Type 2, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, HIPAA, and G
Visby Medical Collaborates with Watchmaker Genomics to Enhance Respiratory Pathogen Detection in the At-Home Setting5.2.2026 14:00:00 CET | Press release
Visby Medical, a leading innovator in at-home PCR testing of infectious diseases, has announced a strategic collaboration with Watchmaker Genomics, a supplier of innovative products for molecular analysis, to develop next-generation diagnostic tests for respiratory pathogen detection in the at-home setting. This partnership pairs Visby Medical’s instrument-free PCR testing technology – the first and only of its kind – with Watchmaker’s expertise in engineering enzymes to address application-specific performance gaps. Clinical samples collected from patients for at-home testing are typically unprocessed, making them vulnerable to molecular inhibitors that can reduce signal strength and lower assay sensitivity. The need for rapid results in the at-home setting also places unique performance demands on the assays and the enzymes they rely on. “Recent increases in COVID cases involving new strains and the current flu season highlight the need for tests that are reliable and fast,” explaine
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom