Years before the online business got validation in India, matrimonial sites such as Bharatmatrimony, Shaadi.com and Jeevansathi popularised the Internet-based matchmaking (meant for weddings) in India.
Almost a decade later, based on a broader matchmaking premise– dating –TrulyMadly began operations in India, early 2014. Since then, the company has been steadily moving forward without losing much money.
But, at the same time, it’s not growing unlike other Internet-businesses across segments. The online dating app repackaged the whole process of dating by customising it for a new generation but has had linear growth, stagnating for the past couple of years.
TrulyMadly clocked a revenue of Rs 7.2 crore in FY17, a mere 3.92 per cent growth compared to the previous fiscal, reveals RoC filings. In FY16, the company’s revenue had stood at 6.93 crore.
The dating platform also saw a rise in expenditure between the two fiscals. The company, which was spending Rs 7.19 crore on the business in FY16, witnessed expenditure marginally increasing by 1.8 per cent to Rs 7.32 crore in the next fiscal.
TrulyMadly was, however, able to recover to some extent as losses fell to Rs 13 lakh in the fiscal year 2017 from Rs 27.28 lakh in the fiscal year 2016.
So far, TrulyMadly had raised about $6 million from Helion Ventures and Kae Capital.
Besides subscription, the company makes money via ‘Select’ (meant for people above 26 years old). It lets date hunters interact with the TrulyMadly team to understand them and then involve in matchmaking across 30 cities.
With Select, it targets users who want to explore things beyond casual dating.
Recently, TrulyMadly launched an app Delta Connect dedicated to the LGBT+ community in the country. It’s creating a safe place for users to meet verified, like-minded people through compatibility while maintaining safety.
The company competes with Tinder, Hyderabad-based QuackQuack, Woo and a handful of others. However, the real competition for TrulyMadly is Tinder which claimed a growth of about 400 per cent on a yearly basis since its launch in 2015.
According to an industry estimate, it does about 4X revenue than the Gurugram-based platform.
Meanwhile, Facebook is also building a dating product meant for finding a meaningful relationship. Given that the social network has a strong user base of 250 million, it can give a tough fight to Tinder and TrulyMadly in India.
