LikeBright, the Seattle matchmaking startup, has been selected to join the Bing Fund, a Microsoft angel fund and incubator program sponsored by Bing.
According to TNW: Why is Bing interested in the startup? Mostly due to its fusion of social data and search, something that Bing itself has long worked on.
As the first local Seattle investment by Bing Fund, LikeBright has the opportunity to work side-by-side with product experts within Microsoft and leverage technology assets (proprietary Microsoft tech and APIs), marketing power and expertise to spur innovation in dating.
Bing interested in the startup? Mostly due to its fusion of social data and search, something that Bing itself has long worked on.
LikeBright founder Nick Soman:
We can turn our outbound notifications back on to actually start connecting people and focusing on growth (got some big plans there) as well as moving beyond telling you who you should meet to tell you where you should go out and get you free stuff there.
The company is celebrating the deal with a fun competition. Starting this week and running through February 14th, the company is hosting a competition to find the world’s best matchmaker.
- Use LikeBright to match up your friends. You’ll know best but if you get stuck LikeBright will make recommendations and share the reason we like the match.
- When a match pops up that you like, simply click “Yes!” and Likebright will set-up an intro. Your friends get a message from you offering an introduction.
- Each time a match you make “accepts” the introduction, your score goes up. The matchmaker with the most unique accepted matches at the end of the contest is the grand prize winner. The leaderboard tracks your progress in comparison to your friends
A graduate of TechStars Seattle, LikeBright previously raised $650,000. It plans to make money through partnerships with local merchants and with subscriptions for premium features.
LikeBright has a dating industry superstar as an investor, Dr. Galen Buckwalter, the scientific founder of eHarmony.
Read more at the LikeBright blog.
Disclaimer: I’m an advisor to LikeBright.
