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
90% of IT Leaders See Gaps in AI Threat Readiness, Lenovo Brings Single Point of Accountability to Cyber Resiliency30.6.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
As organizations accelerate AI adoption and digital workplace transformation, many are finding that cyber resilience is undermined not by a lack of security tools, but by growing operational complexity and threat sophistication. According to recent research, 90% of IT leaders acknowledge gaps in their ability to defend against AI-driven threats. While security investments continue to grow, many organizations face a different challenge: fragmented accountability. Security operations remain highly distributed and siloed, making it increasingly difficult to coordinate response efforts, maintain end-to-end business continuity, and recover quickly when incidents occur. To help organizations address this challenge, Lenovo is expanding its global Security Services portfolio with a revamped cyber resiliency framework and end-to-end security offerings designed to provide a single point of accountability, help organizations reduce security complexity, cut system downtime by up to 50%, and lower
SC Therapeutics Initiates REACH2 Trial for Refractory Chronic Cough30.6.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
SC Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering therapies that deactivate mechano-sensitive ion channels (MSCs) to treat respiratory and cardiovascular disease, today reports initiation of the REACH2 trial. The study will evaluate the Company's lead product candidate in patients with refractory chronic cough (RCC) – a debilitating condition for which no disease-modifying treatment options currently exist. The trial will be run in three major cough centers across the UK. A Novel, Disease-Modifying Mechanism of Action SC0032, SC Therapeutics' most advanced product candidate, is a proprietary therapeutic aerosol composed entirely of ions endogenous to human airways. Unlike current symptomatic investigational drugs – including P2X3 receptor antagonists and neurokinin-1 (NK1) receptor antagonists that seek to dampen neural hypersensitivity through receptor blockade – SC0032’s approach directly addresses the upstream inflammatory drivers of chronic cough. By acting to
Tacton Launches Portfolio Performance Intelligence to Help Manufacturers Understand Why Products Win30.6.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
Tacton, a global leader in Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) solutions for manufacturers of complex products, today announced the launch of Portfolio Performance Intelligence, a new analytics capability designed to help manufacturers understand why products win, where margin is created or lost, and which decisions consistently drive successful business outcomes. Manufacturers don't lack data. They lack the context needed to understand why products perform the way they do and why customers choose them. ERP systems show what was sold, CRM platforms track opportunities, and BI tools visualize trends. But when manufacturers try to understand which customer requirements drive demand, which configurations consistently win, or why margins vary across products, regions or segments, the answers are often unclear. That's because the most important layer of insight–the connection between customer needs, configuration decisions and deal outcomes–only exists within CPQ. “As product complexity increases
Riskified Study: As AI Drives a Summer Travel Boom, Clunky Security and Scam Fears Threaten Merchant Conversions30.6.2026 15:30:00 EEST | Press release
Riskified (NYSE: RSKD), a global leader in ecommerce fraud and risk intelligence, today released findings from global survey conducted ahead of the 2026 Summer Travel season, exploring consumer travel behavior, booking experiences, and trust in digital and AI-enabled travel tools. The survey, conducted among more than 4,000 consumers across the United States, United Kingdom, China, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia, shows strong demand for travel heading into the summer season, alongside continued adoption of digital and AI tools in trip planning. Key findings from the Riskified 2026 Summer Travel Survey include: 81% of consumers use digital platforms for travel planning, with 26% already relying on AI like ChatGPT or Gemini. Leisure remains the dominant purpose of travel at 63%, followed by visiting friends and family (25%), going to live events (7%), and business travel (5%). 47% cite payment security and 39% cite fake or invalid tickets as top concerns when buying tickets online.
Corpay Cross-Border Named the Official Global FX Partner of Fever30.6.2026 15:30:00 EEST | Press release
Corpay, Inc.*, (NYSE: CPAY) a global leader in corporate payments, today announced that its Cross-Border business has entered into an agreement with Fever, a leading global live-entertainment discovery and ticketing platform that specializes in immersive experiences, candlelit concerts, and interactive pop-up events. Under the agreement, Corpay becomes Fever’s exclusive and Official Global Foreign Exchange (FX) Partner. Through this partnership, Fever’s global operations across North America, Mexico, the UK, EMEA, and APAC will be able to leverage Corpay Cross-Border’s innovative solutions to help manage foreign exchange exposure arising from day-to-day business activities. “Fever represents the future of global live entertainment and event ticketing technology, and we are honoured to be named their exclusive and Official FX Partner,” said Brad Loder, Chief Marketing Officer, Corpay Cross-Border Solutions. “This partnership reinforces our position as the leading provider of corporate p
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