Known uses voice AI to help you go on more personal dates

Celeste Amadon and Asher Allen were working on an app that uses artificial intelligence to book restaurant appointments when they stumbled upon a bigger idea that would encourage people to meet in person. Now it is attracting investors.

The duo created an AI-powered onboarding system for their app, which helped them learn more about users without them having to fill out a form. What they found: People loved talking, which increased the length of their onboarding session with the app, which averaged 26 minutes. This is how the well-known San Francisco-based dating company was born.

“Our view is that for the first time, we can know enough about someone to serve them on a date that makes sense. And if we can do that much faster with a lower rejection rate, we can create a user experience that can get people out on more dates.”

Early results suggested they were on to something.

In testing in San Francisco, Known said it saw 80% of its introductions lead to in-person dates, which is significantly higher than swipe-based dating apps. Thanks to these signals, the startup was able to raise $9.7 million from investors, including Forerunner and NFX, along with Pear VC and Coelius Capital. Notably, this is Forerunner’s first investment in a dating app.

“Celeste is a really thoughtful founder who understands the mindset of the consumer, and she’s a young female, to be honest. There are others that could be focused on male demographics, but she’s focused on the young woman who has a lot of unspoken wants and needs, which if you put them in a profile, they would never say, this versus that. And I think in a conversation, you can bring out a lot of those nuances, but in the past, the conversation required a value matchmaker,” Yuri Kim, partner at Forerunner, told TechCrunch. $10,000.

Amadon said she has always been very interested in social impact on a large scale and believes dating is inherently one of the biggest issues facing her generation.

“There have been a million articles written about the loneliness epidemic in the United States, and I truly believe it is the biggest problem facing our generation,” said Amadon, who left Stanford with Allen to found the startup.

The app, which is being tested in beta in San Francisco, uses an AI-powered voice onboarding feature to ask users several questions without requiring them to fill out any forms. Because of this method, the startup is able to learn more about users and provide them with great matches, with one user clocking in in an hour and 38 minutes, Amadon said.

According to Known, when people write their responses, they edit them. With audio, the setup becomes more elegant. The company’s AI can request a dynamic follow-up based on the conversation. For example, if someone recently moved to a city, AI could ask them what they like and don’t like about their experience so far.

Once setup is complete, the AI ​​suggests potential matches to users. They can ask AI agents about those profiles. If they like the profile, they can click “Interested.” When two people are matched, they have 24 hours to accept an introduction and 24 hours to agree to a date. The company said that through this mechanism, the app aims to avoid long conversations and ghosting while encouraging people to meet in real life. After dates, users can provide feedback to the AI ​​and get more accurate recommendations for matches.

Maarouf did not completely abandon the restaurant idea. The app also helps in selecting restaurants based on the user’s likes and dislikes. Using chat and calendar integrations with AI, users can also indicate their availability for first dates. In the beta phase, the company charged $30 for each successful date. However, the startup did not specify the price and said that it will experiment with different models to see which payment method works best.

Today, the startup has three full-time engineers and four people working in the market, with several contractors working across the board. Amadon, whose previous experience includes training in politics, and Allen, who worked on product on the AI-powered online shopping app Phia, plan to boost headcount with this funding.

Known is currently being tested in San Francisco and plans to launch early next year.

There are several other new startups, including Overtone, Hinge CEO Justin McLeod’s new app, which is trying to use artificial intelligence to learn more about users and try to find them matches. Some of them claim to offer custom matchmaker services that cost thousands of dollars for a fraction of the cost. Established companies like Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge are also pushing AI features to keep their user base engaged. Despite the growing number of startups, Amadon welcomes competition.

“When it comes to other emerging dating products, I was very happy to see a lot of people building in this space because I think it shows that it’s time to move away from the swipe-based model. And I think most of them that I saw were very different from what we’re building at Known.”