The app has 200,000 downloads.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Sachin Bhatia is the co-founder of TrulyMadly, an Indian dating app that’s looking to emulate Tinder but revamp mobile dating more to the tune of India’s particular social and cultural quirks.
According to him, “Facebook is India’s Facebook and Twitter is India’s Twitter, but Tinder won’t be India’s Tinder.”
In an interview with TechCrunch, Bhatia explained that there is still a stigma that permeates online dating in India, but TrulyMadly’s “mandate is to make it more cool.”
Many elements of the TrulyMadly U.I. resemble those pioneered by Tinder in North American markets, but Bhatia knew his app had to be custom tailored for Indian audiences if it had real any chance at succeeding.
The primary difference that had to be addressed was that women in India don’t necessarily feel comfortable talking to or potentially meeting with men they just met via an online service.
“We talked to women who told us that they’d be onboard if we could promise them verified profiles, and the chance to sift through men using some compatibility categories,” he explained.
To that effect, Bhatia’s app utilizes trust-based scores to verify its users. You connect your Facebook profile to get started and can verify yourself via other social networks, phone number, and even an offline photo-ID to garner more trust points.
The company’s proprietary algorithm is then able to trawl your accounts in order to verify you are indeed single and active on social media.
Bhatia said that while Tinder places emphasis on location, TrulyMadly instead focuses on compatibility quizzes and scoring.
“We’re not location specific because this works better from an Indian context,” he told TechCrunch, “People in smaller towns often want to meet and date people who are in bigger towns, while the pool of potential dates in small towns is limited.”
TrulyMadly initially launched on Android due to the operating system’s dominance over Indian markets, and an app for Windows Phone is slated to roll out in the next month.
The app, which has reached 200,000 downloads thus far, just announced a $5.6 million Series A round of funding that Bhatia hopes will propel the company to 3.5 million downloads by the end of the year.