Latest news with #NandiniMullaji
CNBC
07-08-2025
- CNBC
Her friends were 'terrified' of dating apps, so this 30-year-old founder turned to AI to help singles find love
For Nandini Mullaji, romantic setups have always been a way of life. The 30-year-old grew up in Mumbai, India where "matchmaking is a very, very strong part of the culture," she says. In fact, Mullaji's grandmother was a matchmaker and successfully set up two of her aunts. Mullaji attended boarding school in the U.S., then Georgetown University for undergrad and eventually Stanford for a combined MBA and master's in education. It was there that she was confronted with one of the major problems with modern dating: People were tired of swiping. Her friends were "successful, good looking, amazing women," she says, but "they were terrified of having to get back on the apps." In 2023, Mullaji, who was part of the team that launched Bumble in India years prior, went to work building her first dating app, Setup, which would set users up per their availability during the week. She quickly realized it didn't offer the kind of solution dating needed. "It didn't feel like this big, life changing product," she says. "It felt like a feature." The following year Mullaji met Chad DePue, who'd previously led teams at Snapchat and Microsoft. The two realized large language models like ChatGPT could be leveraged to create an AI matchmaker that leans into the tradition of Mullaji's homeland. Together they built Sitch, a pay-per-setup app that uses AI to identify the best romantic matches, which launched in December 2024. There has been a lot of interest in how AI might impact the future of dating — both from eager singles and investors. As of July 2025, Sitch has raised $6.7 million in pre-seed and seed funding and boasts "tens of thousands of users," Mullaji says. Here's what Sitch has that the other apps don't, and why Mullaji believes AI matchmaking is the solution modern dating needs. Mullaji identified several problems with the current dating apps. To start, users have too many options, she says. Next, messages in and sometimes out of the app rarely lead to actual dates, according to Mullaji. A 2022 study by Stanford researchers surveyed more than 1,000 Tinder users and half said they were not actually interested in meeting offline, citing reasons like boredom for why they're even on the app. Most importantly, Mullaji says, the information you get about a person via dating apps is limited and superficial, which leads to a "fundamental mismatch of values that would only reveal itself after a few dates." Daters are fatigued by conversations that go nowhere and dates that feel like a waste of time and money. Mullaji and DePue's solution is to have its AI do the heavy lifting upfront, which distinguishes Sitch from apps like Bumble, which uses AI primarily to enhance user safety and Hinge, whose AI features include a coach that gives feedback on your profile. On its website, Sitch promises daters a "personal matchmaker that's actually affordable, and will introduce you to someone you will actually vibe with." Singles can download the app or request a phone call via a prompt on the app's website to speak with an AI chatbot that was trained on Mullaji's own experience as a matchmaker — it even has her voice. Users then answer questions posed by the "matchmaker." They include straightforward questions about your interests and ideal date, but also questions meant to go deeper and identify a person's priorities and values, like about who you've dated in the past, what you liked and didn't like about them and what your dating goals are. Once the app has at least five possible matches based on user preferences, it starts sending those their way. Users can then ask questions about the other person, and when the app suggests someone they're interested in who's interested back, the AI matchmaker makes an introduction in a group chat, just like a friend would. Sitch users pay for successful setups. The app offers packs of three, five or eight setups that are priced at $90, $125 or $160. According to its website, the app justifies the cost — which is higher than competitors like Tinder and Bumble — by explaining that paying users are "serious and committed to actually meeting people IRL." But Mullaji is aware that as with any tech, problems will arise. "It can go rogue with the conversation," she says of the possibilities. For example, the AI can give the wrong advice about a potential date or hallucinate the wrong details about people. "But I think these are things that we're going to be able to fix as time goes on," she adds. One plus about an AI matchmaker versus a human one, Mullaji says, is that people aren't afraid to hurt its feelings and are not filtering what they say. "They're being so incredibly truthful," she says. That honesty, Sitch asserts, helps the AI matchmaker filter for exactly what the individual dater is looking for in a relationship and in a partner. Essentially, users waste less time and money on dates with people who just don't fit the bill. They also have a better shot at finding a long-term match. There is one part of Sitch's process that is still human-driven, though. The app manually reviews new user applications, which includes a verification selfie. Sitch is live in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles and users of the app have already been on thousands of dates. Many of them report that working with an AI matchmaker has been a more positive experience compared to using a traditional dating app. James Harter, 31, used Sitch for a few months and found it effective in identifying people he'd actually enjoy spending time with. "I think every date I went on, there was a second date," he says. Harter recently met someone in-person and is not currently using the app. Karishma Thawani, 35, has been out with two different people she met on Sitch, one for two dates and the other for five dates. She intends to keep using it, because unlike the endless swiping on other dating apps, Sitch "feels more curated," she says. "I feel special when I get an introduction every week," Thawani says. "I wait for it." That kind of help and approach is "really our vision," Mullaji says. "[To] give every single person someone who can help guide them on the journey of learning about who they are, what they're looking for, finding that person, falling in love and staying in love." The company is planning to launch in Chicago and Austin by the end of 2025. "We hope that Sitch is global by 2030," Mullaji says. "That we have democratized access to having a matchmaker to help you make life's most important decision."
TechCrunch
25-06-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
Sitch's new dating app fuses human matchmaking and AI
Can AI improve the dating app market? A new dating app called Sitch aims to find out by leveraging human expertise in matchmaking to power its AI model. Today's dating apps bank on the speed of onboarding and having millions of options. Users create profiles within seconds by uploading photos and answering simple questions. The apps then rely on basic info and feedback from users' swipes to find them potential matches. Sitch aims to take a more thoughtful approach with its onboarding process and uses large language models (LLMs) to bring a human matchmaker's expertise to the dating app experience, helping people find potential matches without swiping. The startup was co-founded by Nandini Mullaji, whose knack for the dating market comes from her grandmother, also a matchmaker. She said that while companies like Match and Bumble dominate the space, people are still unsatisfied and not getting the matches they want. 'Matchmaking is a data problem. I have been good at matchmaking because I had so much more information about two people than a dating app would have. The data in those apps is insufficient to tell you if two people will have long-term compatibility,' Mullaji said. Image Credits: Sitch Mullaji, a Stanford Business School grad, has worked on various dating and education-related projects, including being involved with Bumble's launch in India. Co-founder Chad DePue was CTO of the anonymous social network Whisper and then worked at Snap. Mullaji noted that, up until recently — when large language models (LLMs) became more commonly available — it was hard to scale the human-in-the-loop experience of matchmaking. DePue added that the startup's goal is to extract data from profiles and pictures using LLMs and show personalized matches. Techcrunch event Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW Essentially, Sitch built an AI version of Mullaji that helps users onboard by asking them details using almost 50 questions, which they can answer through text or voice. After the dater's profile is set up, the AI matchmaker displays its suggested matches. If both users agree to match with each other, the bot adds them to a group chat with the AI. At any point in time — even after their real-life dates — users can provide feedback about their matches to improve the AI's personalization. Image Credit: Sitch 'We are constantly surprised and thrilled by how much users trust us in terms of what users share when they are onboarding and when they later provide feedback,' DePue said. 'I think they are also sharing a lot more openly as they know this data is not being publicly shared.' The startup initially trained its AI models with more than 75 parameters for matchmaking provided by Mullaji, and tapped into her matchmaking skills to understand why she thought two people would match up. Then the company used feedback from the users to scale its models. To generate matches, Sitch determines the compatible and contrasting traits between two profiles. The company charges users per set-up (a match), and it sells set-ups in packs of three ($89.99), five ($124.99), and eight ($159.99). Sitch is backed by $5 million in funding from M13 and a16z. Anna Barber, a partner at M13, said that the venture firm was excited by the vision of a startup using AI to build a dating app. Image Credits:Sitch 'The way the founders are building the product maps is with how someone would work with an actual matchmaker. You would call the matchmaker before and after a date and constantly provide feedback. We felt that the idea of expanding a type of service that is personalized to a much wider audience who couldn't afford matchmakers,' Barber told TechCrunch over a call. 'A lot of the dating apps behave similarly to mobile games, where they are trying to extend your attention or gamify the user experience in order to engage more because it leads to more sales,' she added. 'With Sitch, since users are paying upfront, the team doesn't have to focus on these growth hacks.' Sitch currently offers its services just in New York, but plans to open up shop in more cities this year. The company said it's checking all profiles manually to maintain quality and safety. The startup may have its work cut out for it because larger companies, like Tinder, Bumble, and Grindr, are also infusing AI in different parts of their app experiences. Sitch is banking on the fact that people might be looking to move away from swipe-based apps, as the likes of Tinder and Bumble registered a slowdown last year. Plus, the company is confident that as users give the app more data and are intent on serious dating, it will stand out. The app is currently available on Apple's App Store.
