Dating software Siren, which empowered females, shuts straight down after running away from cash

by Taylor Soper on April 5, 2017 at 11:36 am April 7, 2017 at 7:23 am

Noise the security for females in search of one thing apart from old-fashioned relationship apps: Siren is shutting straight down.

The Seattle-based software, which billed it self as an option to websites such as for example Tinder and Match.com with a concentrate on empowering females, is shutting its doorways after operating away from money.

Siren co-founder Susie Lee penned an article detailing the reasons for the company’s shutdown tuesday. She noted that Blackrun Ventures, which just last year spent $225,000 as an element of Siren’s seed round, had never “completed their obligation.”

“Instead, we received tiny, unpredictable quantities, utilizing the other investors fearlessly stepping forward,” Lee had written. “Through the dedication of those committed individuals we had been in a position to carry on development, but we’re able to never ever prepare beyond a couple of months, hindering development, milestones, and brand new money possibilities.”

In a meeting with GeekWire, Lee said that “all closing docs have been finalized, but never finished their dedication.”

“Instead, they issued tiny, unpredictable tranches, frequently with months in between, despite sometimes daily requested updates and repeated assurances,” Lee noted.

Blackrun Ventures, which spent as an element of its women-focused investment supply, nevertheless lists Siren on its profile web page. We’ve reached out to the company for lots more details and certainly will upgrade this post once we hear right back. Modify: on, Blackrun responded to GeekWire and provided this statement friday:

“Blackrun Ventures joined up with a quantity of investors to take part in Siren’s $500,000 seed financing round. While the investor that is lead we committed $225,000, of which 75% had been disbursed during the last one year following conclusion of due diligence.

We had been invested in supplying the rest associated with investment to aid Siren’s expansion, and delivered our consultant to utilize the united group on the strategic way. Unfortuitously, the founders determined on April 4th to shut the company down.

The dating application market is crowded and highly competitive, but our cause of purchasing Siren had been strategic, therefore we had been won over by the eyesight and passion of this company’s founders. However, although we still see prospect of the business enterprise, specially internationally, we respect their choice.”

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“Despite the doubt shadowing us, we did our better to build on our energy, doing every thing inside our capacity to remain afloat,” Lee composed within the post. “But without an approach to harness and distribute funds for expansion, we just could perhaps not grow fast sufficient. The efforts of two co-founders alone weren’t adequate to take on the companies that are well-funded this area. Unfortuitously, this comes at any given time whenever Siren revealed strong traction—relocation and expansion to New York, the forming of key partnerships, and individual success tales that write to us we had been onto one thing special.”

Siren CEO Susie Lee celebrates the App regarding the win at the 2015 GeekWire Awards year.

Created in 2014 by Lee and co-founder Katrina Hess, whom served as COO, Siren differentiated it self off their dating apps by prioritizing women’s security and enabling users to activate through their responses to day-to-day concerns supplied by neighborhood organizations and regional icons that are cultural. The application relied on discussion as a starting point instead than long pages or picture searching.

“We’ve developed the first mobile platform created for unforeseen and constructive flirting,” Lee told GeekWire in 2014.

After winning the GeekWire App of the season prize in 2015, Lee and Hess relocated Siren to new york earlier this September as entrepreneurs-in-residence during the brand new Museum’s incubator system, brand new INC.

Lee stated the business had been “pre-revenue,” but had a revenue that is three-pronged eyesight that included online-to-offline partnerships with neighborhood companies, compensated subscriptions, and “psychometric information analysis of aggregate individual reactions.”

The software had 38,000 new users, with an 80 % reaction price to initial communications, Lee noted. Siren had raised $960,000. Its only employees that are current the 2 co-founders, that are both now back Seattle.

Here’s Lee’s blog post that is full

It really is with hefty hearts—and eyes into the future—that we should announce that Friday, April 7, 2017, Siren may be closing our “doors.”

Whilst it’s maybe not uncommon for a startup to operate away from cash, the way in which we went out ended up being as unforeseen as it had been devastating. At the beginning of 2016, we shut a lead investor to our round whoever objective would be to help female-centric businesses and whom saw the prospective in Siren’s clear differentiation in a saturated market. Yet, around this writing, a full twelve months later on, they usually have not finished their responsibility. Alternatively, we received tiny, unpredictable quantities, with all the other investors fearlessly stepping ahead. Through the commitment of the committed individuals we had been in a position to continue development, nevertheless we’re able to never ever prepare beyond a couple of months, hindering development, milestones, and brand new money possibilities.