Fika, a Stockholm, Swden- and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam-based social and dating app, raised $1.6M in Seed funding.
The round was led by VNV Global with participation from GFC Global Founders Capital GmbH, 31 Atlantic, Balderton Capital’s Magda Lukaszewicz, Index Ventures’ Sofia Dolfe, Sebastian Knutsson, Fredrik Hjelm and Douglas Stark, Jussi Salovaara, Bryan Pelz, Brian Ma, Madeleine Magnerius, Therese Mannheimer and more.
The company intends to use the funds to further expand the team, develop the app’s AI capabilities and increase the brand’s exposure in Vietnam.
Founded by Denise Sandquist and Oscar Xing Luo in June 2020, Fika aims to build a social platform centred on safety and authenticity which empowers users to create and maintain meaningful connections and to see those connections through – from finding friends, to finding love and its Couple’s Version. It uses advanced AI to pair people together and the more people use the app, the more suitable the matches become.
Fika’s Couple’s Version acts as a private online space where the couple can continue to book dates, interact and get information about their relationship – such as birthdays, anniversaries and more. Fika’s AI continually learns about the individuals and will make suggestions and recommendations for date nights and experiences.
The app is currently focused on Vietnam – a market with 100 million people and a median age of 32 – as there is a growing need for online social and dating services that better understand Eastern culture. As opposed to Western apps and ideologies being retrofitted for the Asian market. Since launch, the app has been downloaded more than 600,000 times.
Longer term, Fika plans to expand into new Asian regions before expanding globally.
FinSMEs
12/10/2021