Rivet Raises $10.5 Million From Peak XV to Rethink the Swipe Its Founder Helped Scale at Tinder

Rivet, a dating platform founded by former Tinder and Match Group executive Taru Kapoor, has raised $10.5 million (about ₹100.6 crore) in seed funding from Peak XV Partners, Shine Capital and Blume Ventures. Elie Seidman, the former chief executive of Tinder and OkCupid, is an early investor and advised the company during development. The round was announced on 24 September alongside Rivet’s nationwide launch in the United States.

The raise is notable for who is behind it. Kapoor spent about eight years at Tinder, joining in 2015 to build the business in India and later taking on responsibility for South Asia, Southeast Asia and Turkey, before leaving Match Group in 2023. Her new company is built on the premise that the swipe-led model she helped take to new markets has made dating lonelier than it needs to be.

From swiping to social matching

Rivet’s model, which it calls social matching, lets users take part either as daters looking for a relationship or as matchers who assess potential couples. The app identifies compatible pairs based on preferences, interests and dating intentions, and community members then weigh in on whether a pairing makes sense. Their recommendations feed a Social Matching Score, and pairs that score well receive an introduction, with each person deciding independently whether to connect.

The company describes the approach as give-to-get: people who are not dating themselves can still take part by playing matchmaker for others. Introductions arrive with community recommendations attached before users see a full profile.

“Dating has always been social,” Kapoor said, adding that apps had made meeting people broader but also “transactional and isolating”.

The team and the money

Rivet was founded in 2025 and operates in the US, with an office in Delhi NCR. Kapoor, who is chief executive, co-founded the company with Rajat Sahni, who previously ran CarDekho’s used-car business. The company tested the app in Charlotte, North Carolina, earlier this year with thousands of users before the national rollout, and has been experimenting with offline formats, including live dating shows.

The new capital will go towards product development, distribution and expansion across the US.

Why it matters

Rivet is entering one of the most crowded consumer categories in the world, up against Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, The League and Wingman. Large dating platforms have faced user fatigue and slowing growth among younger audiences, and a number of newer apps are betting that friends, community and curation can restore trust that endless swiping has worn down.

For Indian venture investors, the deal is also a sign of continued appetite for India-linked founders building consumer products for the US market. Peak XV and Blume backing a US-first dating app, with an engineering and operations base in India, follows a pattern seen in software and fintech.

What happens next

The test for Rivet will be whether it can keep matchers engaged once the novelty fades, since the model depends on people volunteering their judgement for others. Retention among non-daters, the conversion rate of recommended introductions into conversations, and the cost of acquiring users in a market dominated by Match Group will determine whether social matching can grow beyond a niche.