Schmooze is a dating app that uses AI-curated memes and a swipe interface (right/left/up) to match users by compatible humor tastes. The app’s algorithm considers which meme types users like or reject and surfaces match suggestions accordingly. New features include “Schmooze Flirts,” which handpicks memes to send to matches, a 48-hour messaging window before chats disappear, and built-in icebreakers. Users can set match distance limits, and additional features arriving soon include meme pick-up lines and “Schmooze Ayooo,” a place for users to post funny camera-roll pictures. The company currently blocks user-submitted memes from its algorithm for quality and appropriateness but plans to launch a user-content platform to allow uploads within the next two months. Schmooze is available on the App Store and Google Play, though some new features are iOS-first (Android rollout delayed 2–3 weeks); the app targets Gen Z (17+) and has safety systems but no extensive background checks. The product has grown to over 50,000 users, with more than 15 million memes swiped and 750,000+ matches made, and a few months ago the company raised $3.2M in seed funding. Schmooze is a dating app that combines memes, tagging and machine learning to connect users by shared senses of humor. The product targets Gen Z users who already communicate heavily via memes and asks users to build bios that feed its matching logic. The company ran a late-summer beta with 200 Stanford students and has since surpassed 10,000 downloads and reports about 90,000 matches to date. Schmooze curates over 5,000 memes, adds roughly 200 memes per day and deletes others as trends shift. The five-person startup is still in beta and plans to scale content moderation once it grows large enough. It has found traction on TikTok and is pursuing product development while acknowledging the sizable monetization opportunity in online dating's tiered-services model.

Total raised

$3M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Aug 2022