Venture Capital News: theComplete.me Secures $1.2M
2012-04-16
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Recently launched social dating network announced a $1.2 million seed round which includes Intel Capital, PlentyOfFish, and CrunchFund, with prominent angel investors.
Recently launched social dating network, theComplete.me, announced today a $1.2 million seed round which includes Intel Capital, PlentyOfFish, and CrunchFund, with prominent angel investors: Russ Siegelman; Ben T. Smith IV; Social Starts, LLC; Spark Unlimited, Inc.; Parker Coddington; Kevin Henrikson; Ali Jahangiri; William Lohse; and Konstantin Othmer. The company will use the funding to support customer acquisition efforts, continue to build key site features, launch a mobile product and grow the team.
"We are thrilled to have distinguished investors Intel Capital and CrunchFund, as well as PlentyOfFish, the global leader in online dating, join our seed round and support our mission to socialize online dating with real identities, comprehensive privacy controls and matching through shared interests and mutual friends," said Brian Bowman, theComplete.me Founder and CEO. Formerly Vice President Product at Match.com, and Vice President Community at Yahoo!, Bowman has recruited key online dating industry executives for theComplete.me's startup team and Board of Advisors.
"theComplete.me is the first service to get social network dating right," said Christine Herron, Investment Director, Intel Capital. "They leverage the unique capabilities of the social graph to drive not only personalized discovery, but also friction-free interaction between users."
"Online dating is a stagnant industry begging to be disrupted," said Michael Arrington, Partner, CrunchFund. "theComplete.me-this team and this product-are going to do that."
theComplete.me leverages the social and interest graph of eight social networks, and allows users to maintain anonymity while pulling in their many interests from around the Web, to create a visual and interest-rich dating profile. Members customize a FraME, a collage of images and videos, for each of their interest areas. FraMEs commonly represent a member's likes, affiliations, aspirations and friend connections.
Unlike traditional dating services, theComplete.me members can use their real social identities on the site and are offered complete privacy control over what, when, and with whom, they share. Each member earns a .Me Score, based on the degree to which they have shared, and the likeliness of authenticity. This combination of interest matching and identity auditing helps singles make meaningful and informed connections.
About theComplete.me
theComplete.me is the first social dating network. We help people easily share who they are using their interests, experiences and mutual friends from their social networks, with complete control over who sees what and when. Founded by Brian Bowman (CEO), former VP Product Match.com & VP Community Yahoo!, and Shashikant Joshi (CTO), former Founder/CTO Perfode, theComplete.me startup team and Board of Advisors include Fran Maier, Co-founder of Match.com, Trish McDermott, former VP Public Relations Match.com, and other former Match.com and Internet executives. Early investors include: Intel Capital; PlentyOfFish; CrunchFund; Russ Siegleman; Ben T. Smith IV;Social Starts, LLC; Spark Unlimited, Inc.; Parker Coddington; Kevin Henrikson; Ali Jahangiri; William Lohse; and Konstantin Othmer.
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