Engage, which is making a name for itself by allowing members to play matchmaker, has raised an additional $5 million in a round led by Advanced Technology Ventures and seed investors Revolution Ventures. The Founders Fund and Josh Kopleman also participated. The company was originally seed funded by Pay-Pal co-founders to the tune of $1 million.
Engage launched in June 2005. Founded by Suneet Wadhwa, a co-founder of the photo-sharing site Snapfish. The site features include matchmaking, Hot-or-not style introductions and E-pinions for rating matchmakers.
The concept of members-as-matchmakers is novel and totally engrossing after you have matched a few people. I’ve spoken to a few matchmakers on the site and they are passionate about what they do. Engage plans on building on this passion as more people play matchmaker on the site.
Suneet is a sharp guy and has good instincts about what it takes to succeed in the dating market. However, timing has a lot to do with a site’s success. Engage launched just as the dating industry started flattening out, which has made it that much more difficult to reach critical mass.
Engage is a good example of a site that is going to grow gradually over time. Not a meteoric growth property like Myspace or PlentyOf Fish, Engage is coming to a slow boil as it continues to build traffic-driving relationships, establish the brand and get the word out about the site’s matchmaking capabilities.
Red Herring has the story and Silicon Beat wrote about Engage last year. Funding announcement press release.
Full disclosure: Engage has been a client of mine.
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