According to AlarmClock and Red Herring, background-check firm Verified Person has raised $12 million.
The money came from Sevin Rosen Funds and Rho Capital Partners. Verified has raised a total of $14.5 million since it was founded two and a half years ago.
CEO Tal Moise found out how difficult online dating can be the hard way, when found out his first date was married, from her husband.
Verified tried to enter the online dating space two years ago, along with competitors such as Trufina. Most of the background check companies have gone on to other markets after running into myriad issues trying to offer their services to dating sites.
Verified’s focus is currently on the corporate world and government agencies.
It’s mystifying why online dating sites have dragged their heels when it comes to background checks. Here’s an opportunity to make existing members feel safer, gain new members who want a safer dating experience, and increase revenue.
I’ve heard arguments about integration costs, which have plummeted. Then there is the concern of the validity and coverage of the data-sources. No service is going to be 100% accurate, but no dating site should choose a background check company based on solely on their data.
Cost to customers has been an ongoing concern as well. Casual daters are much less likely to purchase background check services. Serious daters have shown they will pay. Market the services to your paying members first, bundle background checks during signup and upgrades, or strike a deal with a company to provide free checks for a certain number of your members.
Many in the industry believe background checks are too complicated for something as simple as online dating for the time being. It’s also difficult to provide solid metrics that show that offering safety services will increase revenue, which is all dating sites really care about in the end.
True.com was smart to be the first popular dating site focus on safer dating, it was the execution, legal tangents and poor marketing that hurt them in the end.
My crystal ball sees a simpler, more cost-effective safety check bundled with other services in 2006. Dating sites that market background checks effectively stand to win business from other sites. Which large dating site will stand up and be first remains to be seen.
[tags: verified+person]
