Singles in India can find their match at Aisle, but first they need to make the cut

The online matrimonial business is big in India. A number of websites promise to connect people for marriage, with several dedicated to a specific religion, community, or caste. All that means thousands of online profiles for a user to sift through, and a range of off-putting issues like faked photos, poor filtering, inadequate profiles, and the difficulty of judging actual interest from spam.

Online matchmaking is a hard nut to crack. It is a very personal process intertwined with a largely impersonal medium. And then there is the creep factor. That’s why a startup in Bangalore wants to change the face of online matchmaking in India.

Founded in July 2014 by Able Joseph, Aisle is a matchmaking site targeted toward a niche audience – the affluent singletons of urban India.

Like any other matchmaking site, the user is required to sign up for registration. Each applicant goes through Aisle’s criteria check before gaining acceptance into the network. This is done to maintain a database of profiles where like-minded urban Indians can connect with each other. The authentication process could take 10 working days, according to Joseph.

The signup form is detailed enough to provide users a chance to list specific interests which cater to the urban Indian, like the person’s favorite cuisine, if he/she likes pets, and their thoughts on adopting children versus having their own.

“Indians in general, are discreet about their personal sexual habits and seldom see the value in putting up such information in a public place. Nor do Indians believe that algorithmically matching one’s dating preferences is the way forward while choosing their life partner,” says Joseph.

Aisle users do not pay membership fees, but they need to purchase invites to initiate communication with other users. Each invite gets used up when the another user accepts the invitation to connect. The price for the invites ranges from INR 1,999 (US$33) for three invites to INR 3,999 (US$66) for seven.

The site received more than 15,000 applications in the first six months and the profiles were curated and narrowed down to 4,000 active users. The male to female ratio is a healthy 5:4. As of today, 25 percent of the users have connected with their potential partners and three are reportedly engaged to get married.

Aisle did not advertise its presence, so the users are a result of word-of-mouth growth. “A one-size-fits-all matchmaking portal in Indian conditions is unimaginable. Which is why we set out to address the problem for our friends and ourselves.” says Joseph.

Funding and expansion

On Thursday, the startup received US$100,000 in a seed funding round thanks to TermSheet.io, a platform that connects companies to investors. Angel investors from the San Francisco Bay Area and India both contributed, including Anand Vijay of Microsoft and Shashank Mehrotra of Bigrock.

“Aisle represents one of a select set of atypical startups we’d like to see funded. If you want to see truly disruptive startups out of India, backing Aisle is an easy decision,” says Vivek Durai, CEO of TermSheet. “The matchmaking market is apparently crowded, with a number of companies in this space. For us this indicates that many problems remain unsolved. And Aisle is solving some significant problems in this space.”

The startup will use the funds to hire talent in technology and build new verticals. One of those new channels, Planner by Aisle, is a separate portal which features bridal designers, wedding photographers, makeup artists, and event planners.