Date Drop expands beyond campuses after raising angel funding

The Relationship Company, a public benefit corporation—a legal structure that requires companies to balance profit with social impact—has secured “a few million” dollars in funding from angel investors to scale its operations beyond university campuses. The investor group includes Zynga founder Mark Pincus, former Coatue partner Andy Chen, and early-stage investor Elad Gil. Founder Henry Weng established the Palo Alto-based company after the initial service, which started as a campus project, drew demand from students at other universities.

Founded by Weng, the startup’s first product is Date Drop, a dating service that pairs students with potential dates once per week based on their responses to a questionnaire. The service relies on matching theory, which is the economic and mathematical study of how individuals are paired. Weng explains that the system uses questions, open-ended responses, and voice conversations to build user profiles. According to Weng, the service’s matches convert to actual dates at about 10x the rate of Tinder. “Instead of swiping, we get to know each person deeply and send them one compatible match per week,” Weng said. Since its launch in the fall, over 5,000 students at Stanford have used Date Drop. The service has also expanded to 10 additional schools, including MIT, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Weng intends to expand Date Drop to some cities this summer, viewing the service as the first step in a broader effort to facilitate all meaningful relationships, including friendships, professional connections, and community events. The startup currently operates with a team of two employees besides Weng, supported by 12 students serving as campus ambassadors. To align its internal culture with its product goals, the company provides its employees with a $100 monthly relationship stipend to spend on deepening their personal connections. Weng noted that 95% of Date Drop users are interested in relationships, allowing the company to train its compatibility models on real-world outcomes rather than digital engagement.

Why it matters

The Relationship Company is attempting to move the dating app market away from engagement-based swiping models toward outcome-based matching theory, signaling a potential shift in how consumer apps prioritize long-term user success over time-on-app.