A pair of friends who launched a dating app for the Black community believe it could rival Tinder and Bumble in the next few years. Dayo Israel, 36, set up Melanin Matchmaker as a London-based match-making service in 2019 after talking to friends who said they were finding it difficult to meet ‘the one’ despite the plethora of dating sites and apps now swamping the market.
When lockdown hit in 2020, and meeting in person became all but impossible, Mr Israel reached out to his friend Michelle Jima, who ran her own marketing business, for advice, reports Business Live. The duo, who have known each other since they were teens, decided there was a gap in the market for a Black dating app and went into business together.
In just two years, Melanin Matchmaker has grown to 50,000 users in the UK and US, and is on a sharp growth trajectory. The app, which is free to use but has a number or premium features that can be paid for, is attracting plenty of attention in Britain, particularly in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol.
