Ditto, a dating app for college students, is abandoning swiping in favour of an AI matchmaker that sets up weekly dates. Co-founders Allen Wang and Eric Liu, who dropped out of UC Berkeley, built the service to help peers connect without the endless swiping and small talk of apps like Tinder and Hinge.
Instead of a typical app, students sign up by texting an iMessage number with a code. An AI chatbot called Ditto guides them through onboarding, asking about personality, interests and dating preferences. Some users upload photos of celebrity crushes to help the AI understand their type.
The algorithm matches people based on what their hobbies say about their character, rather than surface-level similarities. Wang said: “Chemistry is actually predictable with the right signals.” Every Wednesday at 7pm, Ditto messages users with their match for the week, including a time and location for the date.
Ditto has 150,000 signups, and Wang said about 20% of matches end up going on a date. The service is currently limited to a few dozen colleges, where a .edu email provides a built-in vetting process. Ditto has $9.2 million in seed funding from investors including Gradient, Peak XV and Scribble, and is focused on expanding safely to more schools and eventually beyond college.