Iceland’s #1 Dating App, Smitten, Raises $10M Series A From Makers Fund, Possible Ventures and More to Woo Gen Z-ers Globally With Its Fresh Approach to Dating
15.9.2022 14:01:00 EEST | 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/
Contact information
Sibel Sunar
fortyseven communications for Smitten
makersfund@fortyseven.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
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
Gen Z Spending is Expected to Reach $12 Trillion by 2030. Here's Why That Doesn't Matter as Much as Brands Think12.8.2026 13:00:00 EEST | Press release
The biggest shift in consumer spending isn't generational—it's behavioral. New research from NielsenIQ (NYSE: NIQ) finds consumers across every age group are increasingly making the same calculation: where is a premium worth paying, and where can they save money instead? The result is a growing divide between premium and value products, while traditional middle-market offerings face mounting pressure. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260812239453/en/ Every generation is spending differently, but all are weighing value more carefully The findings come from NIQ's latest global report, A Tale of Two Consumers: The Polarized Mindsets Reshaping Global Consumption, developed in collaboration with World Data Lab. While Gen X accounted for $15.2 trillion in spending in 2025 and Gen Z is expected to reach $12 trillion by 2030, the report finds that age alone no longer explains purchasing decisions. Consumers across ge
Kinguin Renews Ravelin Partnership After Cutting Ecommerce Fraud to “Industry-Leading Low”12.8.2026 12:04:00 EEST | Press release
Kinguin, a global digital games marketplace serving more than 20 million registered users, has renewed its partnership with AI-native fraud platform Ravelin. The agreement follows significant reductions in fraud and a shift to automated, scalable fraud detection. Since first partnering in 2018, Ravelin has helped Kinguin transform its approach to payment fraud. Kinguin has eliminated the need for real-time manual reviews, while overall fraud rates have declined by 87.5%. The renewal reflects growing confidence in AI-led fraud prevention at a time when ecommerce merchants face increasingly sophisticated attacks, particularly in the digital goods space where instant delivery also means instant results for fraudsters. Kinguin is where gaming and esports fans around the world can access their favorite games, choosing from almost 200 payment methods. This also makes it a magnet for fraudsters. Previously, Kinguin’s fraud team worked around the clock manually reviewing suspicious transaction
Delhaize BeLux Achieves Up to 90% Forecast Accuracy Using SymphonyAI's AI-Driven Replenishment Platform12.8.2026 10:05:00 EEST | Press release
When a grocery retailer operates under a pure B2B affiliate model, it cannot push excess inventory to its store partners — which means forecasting has to be right, or the distribution center absorbs the cost. SymphonyAI, a global leader in Vertical AI, today announced that Delhaize, part of the Ahold Delhaize Group, has deployed SymphonyAI's Demand Forecasting and Replenishment solutions across its 600-store affiliated network and five distribution centers in Belgium, replacing reactive, manually intensive ordering processes with an AI-driven, exception-based workflow. The Delhaize Le Lion / De Leeuw network has no less than 1113 stores in Belgium and Luxembourg. The store network consists of different formulas: Delhaize, Proxy, Shop&Go and louis delhaize. Customers can also shop online via www.delhaize.be, and either pick up their products at the collect points or have them delivered to their homes. Delhaize offers a wide range of over 20,000 quality products. SymphonyAI's Demand Fore
Align Technology Prevails in China Patent Infringement Action Against Angelalign12.8.2026 03:47:00 EEST | Press release
Align Technology, Inc. ("Align") (Nasdaq: ALGN), a leading global medical device company that designs, manufactures, and sells the Invisalign® System of clear aligners, today announced that the Jinan Intermediate People's Court in China issued a judgment in favor of Align in a patent infringement action against Angelalign Technology's operating subsidiaries in China ("Angel") (Hong Kong Stock Exchange: 6699.HK). In September 2025, Align filed a patent infringement action against Angel in the Jinan Intermediate People's Court, asserting Align’s patent related to extraction-gap-closure technology (CN113693748B). On August 10, 2026, the Jinan Intermediate People's Court issued a first-instance judgment finding that Angel's use of its MasterForce biomechanical simulation system and ATreat digital orthodontic treatment design system to generate A7 and A7 Speed premolar extraction treatment solutions infringes Align's patent rights. The court further found that the related aligner products m
Entrepreneurs Invited to Apply for 2027 SPIE Startup Challenge11.8.2026 21:40:00 EEST | Press release
Entrepreneurs around the world are invited to apply for a chance to pitch their optics or photonics technologies or products to a panel of expert judges at the 17th annual SPIE Startup Challenge. SPIE, the international society of optics and photonics, holds the competition at Photonics West every January, with multiple teams walking away with cash prizes. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260811090450/en/ Coalesenz won first prize for their hand-held, point-of-care coagulation analyzer at the SPIE Startup Challenge at Photonics West in January 2026. More than a simple pitch competition, the SPIE Startup Challenge is an entry point into the community of high-tech business development of new products in healthcare and deep tech, with an audience of experienced photonics innovators and investors. Cash prizes of $10,000, $5,000, and $2,500 are provided by Startup Challenge Founding Partner Jenoptik. Also given is t
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