These days, on the consumer side, it seems as if two main kind of apps are the most lucrative: games and dating applications. If you take a look at the top grossing apps on iOS or Android’s app stores, you’ll see a wide variety of the latter, from Tinder to Happn. Groopify wants to get there.
The Madrid-based startup is not just a dating app, but also a platform that makes it easier for groups of young people who don’t know each other to meet up for a drink. Like a blind date, but more sophisticated and with more people involved.
According to Pablo Viguera, co-founder and CEO, in 18 months the app has more than 100,000 registered users and the number of businesses that have partnered with the app has surpassed the thousand mark.
As Groopify brings new customers to bars and cafés, the company believes it can monetise that relationship to build a sustainable business model.
“We don’t only provide recurrent and quality traffic to bars thanks to our meetings, but we also help them in their communication and marketing efforts”, the company says. Groopify charges a pay per lead commission to bars. The company is not publicly saying how well that business model is working, nor will it disclose sales or revenue figures.
Viguera did say in a statement that in the last 12 months the number of plans created by users has grown 10X, and that 2,000 plans are created on a monthly basis in 45 different Spanish cities.
To expand its presence and start rolling Groopify internationally, the startup has just closed a €800,000 round of funding led by media for equity investment firm Media Digital Ventures (Atresmedia, Godó, Vocento), Pinama Inversiones and business angel José María Torroja (through a Startupxplore syndicate).
Groopify had previously raised €180,000 from Plug and Play Spain, Grupo Zriser, Civeta and Carlos Domingo.
