Momo lookalike app for finding dinner dates secures series B funding

Qingchifan, a dating app for meeting up with strangers for dinner dates, has raised a series B round of funding led by Vertex Ventures, followed by Sequoia Capital. The exact amount for this round was not disclosed, but 36kr reports this round plus its series A round total US$20.5 million.

Qingchifan, which literally translates to "invite to eat," looks a lot like Momo, the location-based app for meeting strangers with similar interests that’s now China’s third-biggest mobile social network. Momo, once known as a flirty anonymous hookup app, raised US$216 million when it listed on the NASDAQ in December.

Qingchifan has a very similar look in its chat, profile, and search pages, and it works in much the same way. Fill out a profile, view other users nearby, filter out men or women, and start chatting. All profiles are public. They consist of a profile picture plus any other photos the user wants to show, height, gender, income, profession, and other info.

The app diverges from Momo when it comes time to set up a meeting. The premise revolves around dinner dates. Users can choose a time and specific restaurant and decide how to split the bill beforehand. Basing user interactions around food helps to break the ice more quickly.

People appear in other users’ feeds by a combination of proximity and a "credit score" (not the financial kind). More active users earn more credits, or they can purchase credits to make themselves more visible to others.

Launched in February 2014, the startup now reports 10 million registered users, of whom 45 percent are female. The average user is 23-and-a-half years old.

Qingchifan isn’t the only Momo spinoff in China. Hesha is another app very similar to Qingchifan, except the focus is on wine instead of food.

Qingchifan is available on the web, iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.

(Source: 36kr)