New York – September 24, 2026 -- Rivet, a new dating network founded by former Tinder and Match Group executive Taru Kapoor, launches nationwide across the United States today, free to download on iOS and Android.
Rivet replaces swiping with a network of human matchmakers.
The app introduces what it calls Social Matching, a model where users called Matchers review potential pairs and recommend introductions they think could work. When a pair receives a high Social Matching score, both individuals are introduced, and each person independently decides whether to start a conversation. Anyone can join purely as a Matcher, even if they aren't looking for a relationship themselves, to help someone else find a connection.
A $10.5 million seed round backs the people-powered approach.
Rivet has raised $10.5 million in seed funding from Peak XV Partners, Shine Capital and Blume Ventures to build and scale the platform. Elie Seidman, former CEO of Tinder and OkCupid, is an early investor who advised Kapoor during the app's development.
A survey of 2,013 U.S. adults found strong appetite for matchmaking friends and strangers.
In research commissioned by Rivet and conducted by Censuswide between September 15-18, 2026, 68% of Gen Z and Millennial respondents said they'd be interested in helping someone they don't personally know find a romantic match anonymously, provided that person made the final decision. That included 78% of Gen Z and 60% of Millennials surveyed. The top motivations cited were helping someone find love (36%) and helping someone avoid a bad match (27%).
Kapoor says dating apps removed the people from dating.
"I spent many years thinking what we were building was removing friction from meeting people. Instead, we removed the people," said Kapoor, who spent nearly a decade at Tinder and other Match Group brands across the U.S., Europe and Asia. She said Rivet is built on the idea that humans understand chemistry and compatibility in ways no algorithm can.
Matchers succeed only when two people actually connect.
Rivet operates on a give-to-get philosophy, where Matchers help each other find meaningful connections rather than competing against each other. Seidman called the shift from swiping to human judgment "a powerful, category defining shift" for online dating. Rivet is a product of MeantToBe, Inc., based in New York.