Rivet Raises $10.5M Seed Round to Rethink Online Dating

Dating startup Rivet has raised $10.5 million in seed funding from Peak XV Partners, Shine Capital and Blume Ventures as it launches its community-driven matchmaking platform across the US. Former Tinder and OkCupid CEO Elie Seidman is also an early investor and adviser to the company.

Founded in 2025 by former Tinder and Match Group executive Taru Kapoor and Rajat Sahni, who previously led CarDekho’s used-car business, Rivet is trying to move dating away from the familiar solo-swiping format. Instead, its model lets other users participate as “Matchers” who evaluate potential pairs and recommend whether two people could be a good fit.

Rivet calls the approach “Social Matching.” Matchers are shown two potential daters together and asked whether they think the pair could work. Those recommendations contribute to a matching score, and higher-scoring pairs may be introduced. Both individuals still independently decide whether they want to connect, keeping the final choice with the daters themselves.

The fresh capital will be used to develop the product, widen distribution and scale Rivet across the US following its nationwide launch. Kapoor previously spent years building Tinder and Match Group’s businesses across India and other Asian markets, giving Rivet a founding team with direct experience in how large dating platforms acquire and retain users.

Rivet’s bigger challenge will be proving that adding human judgement actually improves the dating experience rather than introducing more noise. The model depends not only on attracting people looking for dates, but also on convincing friends and strangers to repeatedly act as matchmakers. If that behaviour proves durable, Rivet could offer a meaningfully different engagement loop from traditional dating apps—one built around community recommendations rather than endless individual swiping.