Ignighter, the group dating site that is part of the TechStars class of 2008, has closed a $1.2 million angel funding round. CEO Adam Sachs says that the money will be used to expand its team (particularly its development staff), and will also be used for a marketing push to increase awareness.
Ignighter allows small groups of friends to collaborate on a group profile, where they can include photos and specify their interests. The site then presents a list of possible matches with other groups and helps them arrage get-togethers in the real world. The group environment helps avoid the awkward 1-on-1 situations that result from tradional dating sites like Match, and there’s less pressure – if you don’t hit it off with anyone, you can still have a good time hanging out with your buddies.
The site made its debut at the TechStars demo day in August with an estimated 10,000 users, and has since grown to 15,000 registered members. TechStars is a seed-stage investment fund that is comparable to Y Combinator and DreamIt Ventures.
The dating space is very crowded with some very well established players, but popularity has recently been shifting away from traditional sites towards alternatives, which Ignighter may be able to capitalize on. Also see Mixtt, a similar group dating site that launched at TechCrunch50.
Very cool … Can’t wait to see where this goes.
Dating is supposed to be personal, quiet, and intimate – “group dating” wtf
But how do you meet?
The personal, quiet, intimate date is #3 or 4…
Thank Best Regards
what this is is a party – this isn’t dating
group dating?
To me, group dating = orgy
wonder why aff didn’t think of this
This is stupid. Group dating?!? WTF? Nobody is gonna get any tail/nookie/pussy this way…
wtf then goto craigslist. this is about having fun and instead of seeing if u can hit it off with just one person try to hit it off with anyone. a lot of dates that end up bad shouldn’t even be considered dates because dating is somewhat about fun – not about the ‘mission’ to score that night. group dating is groups hanging out, whatever the end goal is is the end goal. don’t need to promote your hedonistic agendas here as secularly humanistic as they may be sir.
I wonder how it got so much funding as a start up with a correctly spelled word as the site name.
It’d be funny if it gets off the ground though.. I can just imagine a group of guys huddled around a computer putting their page together, arguing about the background music, which pictures to include and giving eachother high-fives as they talk about how much ass they’re gonna get. And what happens when the females cast out their weakest link? Do they need to start a whole new profile or just X-out all the pictures?
Congrats guys. Good job getting busy between those term sheets! I’m proud of you.
The Y Combinator link needs the .com to work
As a successsful “graduate” of match (found my wife there) this concept does seem a bit confusing. Maybe it’s the whole digital native vs. digital immigrant thing. I know that younger folks often go out in groups and “hook up” that may or may not lead to a dating relationship. What happens when the guys start “competing” for the hottest girl and the other girls get no attention? Or the dweeb dude gets ignored. Seems like “events and adventures” has this idea better constructed. We’ve obviously hit bubble land if companies like this are getting over a mil $.
Needless to say, I think the concept is brilliant. Congrats guys!!! I am sure you will be a huge success.
group dating i heard it all now and they got funding wow.
Didn’t TeamDating.com do basically this exact same thing already? They got a ton of great national press and yet basically went nowhere. How is this different again?
I’d love to hear Markus Frind’s (of Plenty of Fish) take on this. In the past I’ve heard him be pretty scathing (and usually right) about the prospects of “high concept” approaches to dating. If people don’t go on group dates in the real world today, chances are they won’t start doing so simply because they can start the process online.
Congratulations, guys! I think this idea is fantastic.
Congrats to the Ignighter team!
Great job guys! Excited to watch your progress!!
Group dating is for punks. If you’re not ready to play, stay on the porch.
Seen similar logo before from a church website from way back. Really similar Logo:
http://web.arch...e/archived.html
Anyone who has a group of friends that would be up for this, probably wouldn’t be on a dating site in the first place.
Also is there a random widget that decides who has to “take one for the team”
Congrats guys! *This* is definitely cool.
I wonder where they might have come up with this idea? Maybe they read my blog? Notice the date (1/08/2008) on my blog post.
http://www.flairjax.com/?p=29
How about Ignighter giving me a idea fee…I think $5000.00 should be good.
Ideas are a dime a dozen. Get over yourself. If you don’t have the commitment to do anything about it… you deserve to get ZERO.
Are all of the supporting comments the people in those photographs/ hired tools?
I think some are (actually, I know) and some aren’t. I thought this was a joke when I saw them present at the tech meetup, but my friends thought it looked good.
The best guess at monetization (and what my friends thought promising) was promotional deals with venues/ bars in the local area. I think that requires a large sales force to execute across the US.
Congratulations to Adam and the whole Ignighter team.
You guys are AWESOME!!! I am so proud of you. This summer at Techstars was incredible….and it’s only just getting started. Way to go….
Brilliant idea/concept.
How is this any different from just going out with your friends?
1.2m??? … congrats! … but there are a lot of group dating platforms out there. even in europe: e.g. http://www.date-a-group.de … but the most interesting ones are less dating than social networking or group profiling
We’re having a blast working with the Ignighter crew. Very smart people.