Playdate, the Uk’s first dating app aimed solely at single parents and a bootstrapped family business,, is building on an extremely successful first year of trading by closing its first external investment round. The app has received a £250,000 angel and VC investment and is now ready to leverage its steady growth and scale the business.

Playdate is the UK’s first dating app catering solely to single parents. The app was founded by single mum and marketing entrepreneur, Nevine Coutry, who knows how tough dating as a single parent can be. Frustrated at the lack of opportunities to meet like-minded single parents, she decided to launch her own app. Her vision with Playdate is to allow single parents to find meaningful relationships, which work alongside their lifestyle and commitments.

Playdate launched in April 2021 and has continued to grow ever since. The app has seen incremental growth from both single mums and dads and has proven that there is an untapped market out there of single parents looking for meaningful relationships. Stand out features of the app include an in-app childcare solution which is in partnership with the UK’s leading nanny and sitter app, Bubble, as well as an invisibility feature which allows users to make themselves invisible to ex-partners.

With this round of investment, Nevine plans on scaling the business in the UK by growing the team, optimising the tech, and amplifying the app's digital marketing campaign to accelerate growth. Nevine's vision with Playdate is for it to become the world's leading dating app for single parents with expansion plans to penetrate the US and Europe first, followed by Asia, South America, and the rest of the world.

Nevine comments, “I’m delighted with the success that we have enjoyed during the first year of Playdate and can not wait to build on this, expand the app, and help many more single parents find love. When I first started to develop Playdate the world was going into lockdown and when we actually launched there were still many restrictions around meeting. Despite these obstacles, Playdate has flourished which is only testament to the fact that there is a huge audience for the app. This untapped potential coupled with the organic growth over the past year is what has really driven this new investment.”

“AIV is very proud to support Playdate's game-changing efforts to meet the unique needs of single parents," says Pierre Rolin, Founder and CEO of Ankh Impact Ventures, the VC participating in this investment round. "Playdate's mission is aligned with our focus on social impact and building an inclusive digital economy. By fostering new relationships and family units, Playdate will improve children's mental wellness and happiness and bring financial security to more families."

Research carried out by Playdate shows that there is a huge gap in the UK market, and the rest of the world, for a dating app for single parents. There are currently around 2.9 million single parents in the UK and 320 million single parents worldwide. Around 1 in 5 relationships start online in the UK and 68% of the UK population has either used a dating app before or are currently using dating apps.