Eureka Ventures Co., Ltd. today announced an investment in EastMeetEast, a New York-based online dating service provider for Asians in the US.

The investors of the $500,000 seed round are Eureka Ventures Co., Ltd., SystemSoft Corporation and DeNA Co., Ltd.

Eureka Ventures Co., Ltd. is established by Yu Akasaka, the CEO, and Jun Nishikawa, the COO, of eureka, Inc., a Tokyo-based startup that develops and operates “pairs”, a one of the largest Facebook-based online dating services in Japan, and “Couples”, a communication app for couples, to invest and foster businesses by startups in Japan and in overseas.

The purposes of this investment are:

To contribute to the growth of EastsMeetEast by providing know-how of the rapid growth of “pairs”.
To accelerate overseas expansion of “pairs” by exchanging information with EastMeetEast, which is headquartered in US, the forefront of the online dating.

The aim is to maximize the synergy between “EastMeetEast,” which targets US and other English-speaking countries, and “pairs,” which targets Asia.

The Rise of Demand for Specialized Dating Service in the US

Mariko Tokioka, the CEO of EastMeetEast, holds an MBA from Oxford University and launched “Quipper” in the UK as a co-founder prior to founding EastMeetEast.

Besides big players with millions of users like “Match.com” and “Zoosk”, specialized dating services are becoming mainstream in the US, the forefront of online dating industry. Specialized dating service includes online dating services specifically for such as: Jewish singles, Muslims, cat loving singles, vegetarians, and more.
That is when Tokioka launched “EastMeetEast” in November of 2013 from her experience that “there is no online dating service optimized for Asians in English-speaking countries.”

Since the initial launch in New York, the service is gaining popularity and 30~40% of users continue to use the service every week. The service will be going beyond New York and expand to area such as Los Angeles and San Francisco.