Dating app burnout has reached an all-time high, with a staggering 78 percent of users reporting feeling completely drained by the endless cycle of swiping, ghosting and superficial connections. Spending nearly an hour every day scrolling through profiles rarely results in fulfilling relationships. Recognising that the current landscape is broken, the mastermind behind Hinge is stepping up to fix it with artificial intelligence.
Justin McLeod, who stepped down as CEO of Hinge late last year, has successfully raised $18 million in seed funding for his brand-new venture, Overtone. The round secured major support from FirstMark Capital, Pace Capital, and Hinge parent company Match Group. However, those hoping for another platform to endlessly scroll through will be surprised to learn that Overtone is entirely profile-free.
According to Justin, the platform represents a total departure from the status quo.
“Overtone is not a dating app,” he explained. “By that I mean it’s not a social platform with profiles that reduce people to stats, quotes and photos. There are no opaque, algorithmic feeds trained on split-second impulses. And there’s no juggling likes, matches and chats across many people at once.”
Instead, it is an audio-forward matchmaking service that relies on artificial intelligence to provide highly curated introductions. Rather than reducing humans to mere metrics, the platform gets to know users through spoken conversations. The AI operates behind the scenes to deeply evaluate compatibility, completely bypassing the opaque, impulse-driven algorithms that govern modern social feeds.
The project has already attracted serious firepower, with renowned relationship psychotherapist Esther Perel joining the board of directors alongside Match Group chief executive Spencer Rascoff. Overtone enters a growing market of startups like Ditto and Date Drop, which are similarly leveraging technology to offer direct, high-quality pairings rather than large, overwhelming swiping pools.
Overtone is slated for a limited rollout in select locations later this year, and a waitlist is currently open for early access.
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