Keeper, an AI-driven matchmaking company focused on serious long-term relationships, said it raised $4 million in a pre-seed round that closed in October 2024. The financing was led by Lightbank and Lakehouse Ventures, with participation from Champion Hill Ventures, Goodwater Capital, and other investors. The company said the funding was for a year of research and development to turn its matching methodology into a fully automated product and accelerate broader market adoption.
Founded in 2022, Keeper positions itself as a matchmaking platform optimized for outcomes rather than engagement, emphasizing quality over quantity by screening large numbers of potential partners and presenting one tailored match at a time. The company said its approach combines comprehensive intake with a psychometric methodology, and that its beta program drew more than 1.5 million signups. Keeper also reported that its early results yielded a 1-in-10 conversion rate from first dates to marriage, the strongest success rate of any product to date.
Since the October 2024 close, Keeper said it has focused on transforming its human-in-the-loop, AI-assisted process into a more automated system. With the launch of Keeper V2, the company said its AI handles searching, ranking, and proposing matches. And a human matchmaker performs a brief final review to maintain quality as the company continues its push toward full automation. Keeper said this structure is intended to preserve accuracy while reducing the time required to deliver a match.
Keeper said its system relies on open-ended data collection and relationship science to assess compatibility across preferences, personality, values, intelligence, and other predictors of long-term relationship success. The company added that its algorithms were developed with guidance from Stanford evolutionary scientists and psychometricians and are designed to learn from real-world outcomes to improve performance over time.
The company said the new funding is being used to scale its matching engine, expand distribution, and roll out self-improvement features such as coaching and feedback. Keeper framed those additions as part of an effort to differentiate from traditional dating apps and to build a product experience aligned with lasting relationship formation rather than continued user churn.
KEY QUOTES:
“In beta, we proved that our method works. This past year has been about scale, speed, and accessibility,” said Jake Kozloski, Founder & CEO of Keeper. “Our AI is becoming the matchmaker that understands you better than you understand yourself–so your first match can be your last first date. This funding helped us build the foundation for a fully automated AI matchmaker that can address loneliness at a global scale.”
Jake Kozloski, Founder & CEO, Keeper
“Dating apps have one of the lowest NPS among all consumer apps–users are tired and frustrated and ready for something new. With advances in large language models, an AI matchmaker isn’t just possible, but as Keeper is proving, infinitely better than incumbent solutions.”
John Neamonitis, Lakehouse Ventures
