Mandy Menaker
- Amata is a new dating app launching in the US, starting with New York City.Founded by French entrepreneur Ludovic Huraux, Amata uses AI to match users without swiping.The startup has raised $6 million to date.
Matching on dating apps is getting a makeover thanks to AI.
Amata, a new dating app launching in the US this week, is the latest startup to deploy AI to shake up the online dating experience.
Instead of swiping through profiles, Amata has its users chat with an AI matchmaker, called an "Amata" in the app. The AI matchmaker asks several questions about users' dating preferences and goals, and then pitches potential matches to go on a date with.
Amata's CEO, Ludovic Huraux, told Business Insider that AI-era dating apps should help people "connect as fast as possible in real life without spending time online."
Once a pair is matched, the user pays for a "token" — $16 at the moment, but Amata plans to raise that cost — to start planning the date.
Amata's AI then plans the date, even selecting a location tailored to the user's proximity and preferences. Two hours before the date, the app briefly opens up a DM chat. Otherwise, there's no inbox of DMs from matches.
If someone cancels on you, don't fret — you'll get to bank that token for later. And if a user cancels twice in a row, the app will pause recommending new matches for seven days, Huraux said.
"We don't want people who are not emotionally available, who are on dating apps just for their ego boost," he said. "It's about intentionality."
Amata also attempts to replicate the experience of a human matchmaker by following up with users after the date to see how it went.
"With this information, we will feed the matching algorithm to keep improving the dates," Huraux said. The app uses multiple AI models, he said.
Amata's not the only dating app betting on AI. The tech craze has led to new online dating tools from coaches like Rizz AI to matchmaking apps similar to Amata. Both new and old apps are adopting AI in an effort to improve the online dating experience amid dating app burnout. AI even has some venture capitalists turning their heads back to online dating, a category that had previously cooled.
Huraux founded Amata in 2023 and first began testing a beta version of its product in Australia this year. The company is now officially rolling out Amata to users beginning with New York.
The startup exclusively told Business Insider that it raised $6 million in pre-seed funding in 2023, led by the VC firm Cassius and with participation from Factorial Capital, Hugging Face founder Clement Delangue, and ex-Zenly founder Antoine Martin.
Amata's team of seven full-time employees is split between New York and Paris.
Amata
This isn't Huraux's first time launching a dating app. He founded dating site Attractive World in 2007 and sold the company to European dating conglomerate Affinitas GmbH in 2016. Affinitas later merged with Spark Networks, which owns dating apps like Christian Mingle, EliteSingles, and Zoosk.
After selling Attractive World, Huraux launched Shapr, a professional social networking platform. French professional talent management company the Lincoln Group acquired Shapr in 2023.
Dating apps in the AI era
A big topic of conversation in the dating app industry has been consumer dissatisfaction with The Apps.
In March, the CEO of Match Group (which owns Tinder and Hinge) said in a memo that dating apps can feel like a "numbers game rather than a place to build real connections." In May, after Bumble's Whitney Wolfe Herd returned as CEO, she also got frank about the state of dating during an earnings call, saying that online dating was at an "inflection point."
Incumbents and startups alike are turning to AI to change the narrative around dating apps.
Bumble has teased a new dating app experience tied to AI matchmaking, per an August interview with Wolfe Herd in The Wall Street Journal. Even Meta's Facebook Dating is getting in on the AI matchmaking craze.
Amata joins a handful of startups, like Sitch, Keeper, and Ditto, that tout AI matchmaking as an alternative to mainstream dating apps.
Huraux said he views the previous generation of dating apps as "toxic" and thinks AI — and product shifts like removing swiping or DMs — could "rehumanize the way people date."
