A new dating app made by college students uses mutual friends to match you. Read the pitch deck it raised $1.6M with.

While some new dating apps look to the future with AI, others are going back to basics.

Myles Slayton, CEO of dating app Cerca, is betting that Gen Z dating app users want their next relationships to come from their already established social circles — not strangers.

Cerca, which launched in March, curates matches with mutuals using people’s contact lists on their phones. Cerca’s users are limited to seeing four profiles a day and find out at 8 p.m. each day whether someone liked them back.

The startup recently raised a $1.6 million seed investment led by venture capital firm Corazon Capital, Business Insider has exclusively learned.

After returning to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., following a summer banking internship in New York City, Slayton spent his senior year building Cerca, alongside cofounders William Conzelman and Carter Rocket-Mun.

“We built this app out of frustration with the other apps,” Slayton said.

Cerca users can see what contacts they have in common with another profile, and those mutual friends can join the app to help do the matchmaking themselves.

“We want to show the mutuals — the people and friends that you have in common — and then show the info about the person, and then lastly, show the photos,” Slayton said. “It’s not all about what you look like.”

To join the app, users need to bring five friends, or they can bypass the waitlist if they already have five friends using it.

The dating app landed on the radar of Corazon Capital’s Sam Yagan, who previously cofounded OkCupid and was the CEO of Match Group (which owns dating apps like Tinder and Hinge) from 2012 to 2015. Yagan said Cerca’s traction among college students caught his attention. The app has more than 20,000 users, and most of that user base is between 18 and 30, Cerca said.

“There has been a very noticeable rejection of the swipe apps by Gen Z,” said Yagan, whose firm’s first investment in dating is Cerca.

Using mutuals to match isn’t completely novel. Hinge launched over a decade ago with a similar premise, and other dating apps have attempted to tap into the friends-as-matchmakers trend (including Tinder and Facebook). One of Cerca’s unique features, though, is that you can look up specific people.

“Everyone has four or five crushes in mind at any moment, right?” Slayton said. “As opposed to waiting days, weeks, months for that profile to appear, you can simply search up their name.”

The next generation of dating apps

Cerca is one of several new startups taking on the apps dominating online dating right now. Other startups, like Sitch, an AI matchmaking app, also recently raised capital. (Applications of AI in dating have also spurred interest among some investors.)

However, outside Cerca’s algorithm, its product or branding does not heavily boast AI.

“AI will touch everything in this world, every sector,” Slayton said. “The one thing that AI can’t touch is your best friend’s opinion on something or someone.”

Instead, Cerca’s growth plan will include an IRL events component, such as parties with mutual friends or activations on college campuses.

“Almost every dating interaction that starts online ends up with the desire of being offline,” Yagan said. “The more a dating app can integrate the real world into its customer acquisition, into its engagement loop, the more it naturally lends itself to success, which is ultimately, users going on a date.”

Read the 10-page pitch deck Cerca used to raise $1.6 million.

Note: Some details have been redacted.

Cerca is a new dating app.

Cerca describes itself as a “dating app for mutuals, not strangers.”

Its pitch starts by describing the app.

“Cerca is a dating app that discreetly connects people within their social circles, offering a safe environment for building meaningful relationships with mutual connections,” the slide says.

Then the deck outlines the problems Cerca is trying to solve.

The slide lays out three core problems in dating:

• Fear of Strangers: Low trust. Sketchy users. No real accountability.
• Fear of Rejection: Making the first move is hard.
• Hookup Culture: Too casual. Not intentional. Lack of meaningful connections.

Cerca shared some stats, too.

Here are a few (unattributed) statistics from the slide:

• 45% of 18—40 year-olds meet their significant other through mutual friends.
• 90% of dating app users fear rejection. Less people are matching as a result.
• 40% of women are off dating apps for safety reasons.
• 60% of women prefer when men initiate conversations. 70% of men express a desire to take the lead but hold back.

Cerca explains how it will provide solutions.

Here’s what the slide says:

• Accountability: Leveraging mutual connections ensures users are accountable and respectful. “What goes around comes around.”
• Anonymity: Users remain anonymous until both like each other. This “low-risk, high-reward” approach will be a clear matchmaking facilitator.
• Limitations: Limiting swipes encourages users to prioritize quality over quantity and form genuine connections.

Then the deck shows off its early growth.

These numbers are not current, but here’s what the deck included at the time:

• 13k+ downloads
• 7.8 average referrals per user
• 67% women
• 30% like/match conversion

The startup also outlines its plan for IRL events.

Cerca has been hosting events in New York City, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Miami.

“Cerca Events is an extension of our app, giving our users spaces to meet mutual friends in person,” the slide says.

The slide outlined a few planned events in New York and on college campuses.

It also introduces the founding team.

The team has had some changes since this slide was created.

The deck wraps with a product demo.

The slide includes a video showing how the app works and what the user experience looks like, including its mutual friend tools.

Cerca’s funding will go toward hiring and marketing.

“Our main cost drivers are development and college/event marketing,” the slide says.

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