Heart to Heart Audio Dating App Gets Seed Money

Audio-focused dating app Heart to Heart, created by former TikTok product and operations lead Joshua Ogundu, raised $750,000 in seed money towards its launch goal.

The funding was initiated by Charles Hudson at Precursor Ventures, according to dot.LA. The seed money will go toward research and development of the app, which is expected to launch in beta form for iOS users by the end of the year.

Ogundu first came up with the idea because of audio-based social media platform Clubhouse’s popular speed dating rooms. Seeing an opportunity for audio connection in a dating app, he took to Twitter to find engineers to make Heart to Heart possible. Twitter now offers live audio group chats along with Clubhouse, and demand is still growing. Podcasts have persisted in being widely popular, paving the way for other audio applications.

Heart to Heart founder Joshua Ogundu

Image: Heart to Heart

The investment money for Heart to Heart however, comes on the heels of Hinge announcing its first audio features, including audio clips for profiles and audio notes, where users can record voice messages for other users. Despite this competition, Ogundu is looking forward and making audio the focus of his new app, not just a feature.

“I saw how much voice, and audio experiences drive intimacy between people,” Ogundu told Tech Crunch. “When it came down to the dating apps, it was never something I could get into. I felt like you needed to come up with a textual one-liner. That was never my way of approaching romantic conversations.”

Similar to other dating apps, a Heart to Heart user creates a profile and uploads photos, but then they are also prompted to record audio to accompany the photos and explain where they were, what they were doing, or anything else interesting about the photo and why they wanted to include it.

When two users are matched, they can send voice messages to each other, but once they’ve listened, they can’t go back and listen again, according to dotLA. The point is to keep the conversation moving forward.

Ogundu’s background at TikTok and his own creative videos for the platform also got the investors’ attention, according to Tech Crunch. Dating apps in general have an eye towards younger Gen Z daters who are wanting a richer, more interactive experience, which Ogundu understands. 

“I believe that the best consumer investments come from people who have unique insights on consumer behavior and ways that new tech products can allow new forms of social interaction,” said Charles Hudson from Precursor Ventures, who led the pre-seed investment round. “I think the idea around confirming photos, storytelling, and audio will yield a product that really speaks to people’s unmet needs around communication and will create a whole new way for people to connect.”

Hudson went on to say: “The last two companies that I feel really innovated in this category were Tinder and Bumble.”  

Ogundu, engineer Arihant Jain, and designer Komal Shrivastava are heading up the efforts to bring the beta version to the L.A. market by the end of the year. Ogundu told dotLA that he wanted Heart to Heart to "encapsulate all of what we're really looking to do, which is to build intentional, intimate connections between humans."