What Cerca does

Cerca (legal entity: CERCA APPLICATIONS INC, incorporated in Delaware with a registered address in Dover and operating presence in New York) is a consumer dating application founded in March 2025 by Georgetown University students Myles Slayton, William Conzelman, Carter Munk, and Thatcher Shultz. The product is a mobile-first iOS app that matches users exclusively through their existing social circles — uploading the user's contact list to surface profiles of people with whom they share a mutual friend or contact — rather than presenting algorithmically selected strangers as on conventional swipe apps. Core product features include anonymous likes that remain hidden until reciprocated, a four-profile daily cap intended to encourage deliberate engagement over endless swiping, an 8 p.m. notification rhythm for match reveals, and a Student Mode that gates access to college-specific communities behind school email verification.

The underlying technology stack combines contact-list ingestion and graph overlap for candidate generation with third-party Amazon Web Services Rekognition for selfie-based liveness and facial-similarity checks used to flag impersonation. Cerca does not describe any proprietary AI matchmaking or recommendation models; matching is fundamentally graph-based. The company has also built a live events program — Launch Nights, branded series such as Surf, Lodge, and For the Girls, and a nationwide college tour — that functions as an offline acquisition and retention channel layered on top of the app.

Cerca's go-to-market is primarily product-led via the Apple App Store, augmented by community-led acquisition on college campuses and event-driven brand building. The company operates in the United States only and has no disclosed international footprint. Revenue mechanics are subscription-based with auto-renewal per the published Terms and Conditions; specific pricing tiers and ARPU are not publicly disclosed, and the app is free to download. The company is venture-backed, having closed a $1.6 million seed round in June 2025 led by Corazon Capital (with partner Sam Yagan, former CEO of Match Group and co-founder of OkCupid, alongside Phil Schwarz and Christian Rudder).

Name

Cerca

Legal name

CERCA APPLICATIONS INC

Website

https://cercadating.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2025

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Cerca is a New York-based Gen Z dating app founded in 2025 by Georgetown students that matches users exclusively through mutual friends and contact-list overlap, distributing via iOS with a subscription model and supporting college communities through Student Mode and a nationwide campus events program.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. App Subscriptions: The Terms and Conditions mention automatic subscription renewals, indicating a subscription-based revenue model. Users can purchase subscriptions with automatic renewal unless canceled.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Cerca is a mobile dating application that connects users exclusively through their mutual friends and shared social contacts, rather than matching random strangers. The app limits users to four profiles per day, keeps likes anonymous until both parties express interest, and includes a Student Mode that verifies college affiliation via school email. Identity verification is performed via selfie liveness checks processed through AWS Rekognition.

Product overview

Cerca is a single unified dating app product designed for Gen Z users. The app connects users through mutual friends using their contact lists, differentiating itself from traditional swipe-based dating apps by emphasizing trust, safety, and accountability through social connections. Key features include anonymous likes (revealed only when mutual), daily profile limits of four matches, and a Student Mode for college campus verification. The company also organizes in-person events to complement the app experience.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Cerca Dating App A Gen Z-focused iOS dating app that matches users exclusively through mutual friends and shared social contacts rather than random strangers. Features anonymous likes (revealed only when mutual), a daily cap of four profiles, an 8 PM notification rhythm, and selfie liveness verification via AWS Rekognition. Includes a Student Mode with school-email verification for campus-scoped communities. Available via the Apple App Store.

Quantifiable outcome

• 170,000 initial user base acquired at launch, demonstrating strong market fit for Gen Z dating alternative
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Ship: Friend-recommendation dating app where friends can vouch for matches, overlapping with Cerca's social-trust approach. Targets a similar Gen Z audience with a friend-network-driven model.
• Snack: Video-first dating app focused on Gen Z with a creator-economy angle. Comparable target demographic but differs in core matching mechanic; relevant as a Gen Z-first dating platform.
• Lox Club: Invite-only, selective dating app targeting ambitious young professionals. Comparable in the intentional-matching, anti-mass-market positioning aimed at users seeking curated experiences.
• Bounce: A dating app that matches users through mutual friends, very similar to Cerca's core proposition. Direct product overlap on social-graph matching makes it a head-to-head emerging competitor.
• Fruitz: Dating app that categorizes users by what they are looking for using fruit icons, with a safety-focused stance. Comparable as a younger demographic dating platform with a differentiated matching mechanic.
• Thursday: A once-a-week dating app that limits availability to Thursdays, comparable to Cerca's anti-swipe-fatigue, intentional-usage philosophy. Targets similar urban, relationship-oriented Gen Z users.
• Raya: Highly exclusive, application-based dating app for creative and influencer communities. Comparable on the curated, trust-and-safety dimension that Cerca also emphasizes through mutual connections.

Broad incumbents

• Tinder: The dominant swipe-based dating app from Match Group. Indirectly comparable as the incumbent Cerca explicitly positions against, with overlapping Gen Z user base but a fundamentally different matching mechanic.
• Bumble: Major incumbent dating app with a women-message-first model. Comparable in targeting young daters seeking relationships, but operates at significantly larger scale and uses different core mechanics than Cerca.

Direct peers

• Hinge: Positioned as a relationship-focused dating app emphasizing meaningful connections and mutual friends. Hinge is the closest direct competitor to Cerca given the overlap in 'designed-to-be-deleted' positioning and mutual-connection mechanics.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cercadating
• Instagraminstagram.com/cercadating
• TikToktiktok.com/@cercaofficial

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Cerca