Offer Yehudai doesn’t want you to fall in love with an AI bot.
He wants couples to use Arya — the relationship wellness AI startup he cofounded — to spice up their in-real-life intimacy.
“There is still taboo and stigma around intimacy,” Yehudai told Business Insider in an interview. Arya aims to make talking about those taboo topics more “accessible for couples” with its AI chatbot that embeds directly into users’ text messages.
Yehudai described the startup as a “concierge,” rather than another app or one-sided robot to vent to. Arya’s goal is to get couples — meaning both partners — fully onboarded so they can use the platform as an intimacy coach that recommends relationship or sex advice, and even toys for the bedroom. Arya also handles the e-commerce side of buying sex toys.
Yehudai compared Arya’s chatbot to the “Sex and the City” character Samantha Jones, who “will listen to me, will know my wife or my partner, and then say, ‘I know both of you, here is what you need.'”
Yehudai said the company also has a team of sex and relationship experts who support the couples on the platform when Arya’s AI models don’t have “high enough confidence in its answers.”
It uses models from OpenAI and Anthropic, and trains its tools on proprietary data around relationships and intimacy, Yehudai said.
Founded in 2022, Arya now has tens of thousands of couples onboarded to its platform, Yehudai said.
The startup recently raised $21 million in growth funding. This new round included $4 million in equity venture capital from Ibex Investors and $17 million in cohort financing led by the gaming-focused VC fund Bitkraft. Yehudai said the company chose to raise $17 million in non-equity financing to avoid diluting its shareholders as it grows. Bitkraft will fund the startup’s pursuit of new user “cohorts” and will be paid back by the revenue they generate.
The latest raise brings Arya’s total funding to $37 million, according to the company.
When pitching investors, the startup said it aimed to break even by the end of 2026.
Intimacy as an AI-powered business
Arya makes money through subscriptions, which start at $60 a month. It offers discounted multi-month plans at around $33 a month.
Cracking monetization early on as a startup has been crucial to Arya’s growth, Yehudai said.
He added that there’s a “white space” between people spending money on dating (like dating apps) and eventual costs like couples therapy or divorce. Ideally, its users sign up for Arya before they incur more expensive costs, like therapy.
One of Arya’s investors, Amber Atherton at VC fund Patron, told Business Insider last year that she was on the hunt for AI startups with tech that fueled IRL connections and deeper relationships.
Arya’s new funding will go toward expanding its product team, brand building, and acquiring new customers.
The company has 18 employees and works remotely across the US. Yehudai, like many other tech founders, recently moved from San Francisco to Miami.
Yehudai is looking to other wellness categories as a frame of reference for what Arya could grow into. While there are tools for fitness (like Strava), mental health (like BetterHelp), or broader wellness trackers (like Oura Ring), “we’re really lacking” in support for relationships, he said.
“Intimacy is just the hook,” Yehudai said. “It’s really about being that couple companion for as much and as long as they need us.”
Read the pitch deck that Arya used to pitch investors and raise $21 million:
Note: Some slides and details have been redacted.
Arya calls itself a ‘couples wellness companion’
The slide says there is a $100 billion “relationship economy” and that the startup had previously raised $16 million. It says Arya is making $11 million in annual recurring revenue.
The deck introduces Arya’s team
Here’s what the slide says:
Offer Yehudai: CEO
- CMO, Digital Turbine ($APPS)
- President, $650m Exit to Digital Turbine
- Co-Founder & President, $86m Exit to Fyber
Tomer Magid: Product
- Founding Member & GM, $80m Exit to Proofpoint (VP Info Protection)
- VP & Interim CEO, Acquired by Best Buy
Shan Boodram: Chief Intimacy Officer, Evangelist
- M.S. Psychology
- 2M followers, features in viral TV shows (Netflix’s Too Hot to Handle, and Roku’s The Marriage Pact), collides entertainment and science to shape the strategy and services of Arya.
Then it lays out the market of online dating and relationships
The pitch deck says that 20 years ago, “it was weird to date someone you met on the ‘internet.'”
It also outlines the rise of mental health apps
“8 years ago, athletes did not promote mental wellness apps on billboards,” the slides says.
As well as wellness tools like the Oura Ring
“3 years ago, you did not consult with your ring about your sleep patterns,” the slide says.
Arya’s deck spells out a problem: Couples are struggling with intimacy
It sees an opportunity in the gap between online dating and divorce
“People are sleeping on The Relationship Game, a $100B giant,” the slide says.
Then the deck explains Arya’s product
“So we built a couples’ companion,” the slide says. “Starting with Intimacy.”
It has three layers: AI concierge, guidance, and commerce.
It then explains how its AI works
Here’s what the slide says:
AI allow us to scale but having pros on staff provide quality control
- Data Moat: Over 24 months of unique training data → The last place LLMs are going after.
- Not a Chatbot: We don’t just answer questions, we proactively engage both couples.
- Content engine = retention is a function of content and curation.
Arya shares its bigger goals
“Our goal is to make relationship and modern intimacy as essential, joyful and accessible as skincare, nutrition and fitness,” the slide says.
It then includes some stats about its millennial users
Arya believes it can leverage data, taboos, and commerce
“This is how we sustain growth after breaking even,” the slide says.
Here’s what is in Arya’s Venn Diagram:
- Data: AI opens a new frontier of personalized, playful, and emotionally intelligent experiences.
- Taboo: Intimacy, wellness, and sexuality are no longer taboo – couples are ready to talk, explore, and invest.
- Commerce: E-commerce and AI are merging. People trust AI for both emotional support and purchases.
Then the deck gets into the lessons the startup has learned
People don’t want another chatbot
Users don’t want another chatbot or voice assistant, the slide says.
“Concierge must be proactive, talk to both partners and close the loop,” it says.
The startup also found that people want a hybrid AI-human experience
“Members pushed back on intimacy advice from AI,” the slides says, which is why the startup uses a hybrid approach with humans.
People are shy when it comes to buying bedroom toys on Amazon
“Most people will not buy a blindfold on their Amazon family account,” the slide says. It says there’s a mental load and sometimes shame.
The deck wraps on funding details and Arya’s goal to break even
The slide says the startup has “full participation from all existing VCs” and has a goal to “break even by year end and 4x to tens of millions of ARR.”
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