Coffee Meets Bagel has been a popular name in the online dating industry since its launch in 2012. Based in San Francisco, the app brands itself as a place for Gen Z and millennials to get into deeper, long-term relationships with a potential match.
In this article, we’ll look at the company’s net worth, history, and a glimpse of the founders’ journey. Hold tight, and don’t miss the amazing Shark Tank pitch of Coffee Meets Bagel!
So, let’s get started.
Coffee Meets Bagel Net Worth, Revenue, and Valuation in 2023
As of 2023, the Coffee Meets Bagel net worth is estimated to be over $150M.
This is backed by a fantastic annual revenue of $16M, according to several sources. The official numbers, though, aren’t publicly known.
Going by the report of Sensor Tower, Coffee Meets Bagel touched the mark of $1M in revenue in November 2023 through its Android and iOS mobile app. Dissecting this figure further, the iOS users contributed approx. $800K to the income, while Android users chipped in with $400K.
If we go back to 2018, which proved to be the best financial year for the company, it earned over $10M through iOS alone via in-app purchases and paid subscriptions, per Sensor Tower’s Store Intelligence estimates.
History of Coffee Meets Bagel
Coffee Meets Bagel is a one-of-a-kind addition to the already crowded market of online or remote dating apps.
But what’s so special about Coffee Meets Bagel?
Instead of bombing its users with unlimited matches throughout the day, the online dating platform shares up to six and 21 dates with women and men, respectively.
This is the idea of three sisters from Seoul, Korea, now settled in the United States, to provide women with an online dating platform that understands how they want to date. And the name “Coffee Meets Bagel” aptly reflects the siblings’ vision.
While coffee means a casual, low-pressure setting for individuals, bagels represent the daily, curated matches.
Here’s what the founders, famously known as the Kang sisters, said in an interview with The Orinda News:
“We’re not a high-volume swiping app. We curate the best matches every day at noon and send them to our users, who then have 24 hours to decide on the match. If the interest is mutual, simply connect and start chatting.
Our streamlined approach resonates with busy professionals. They are prioritizing what’s important. Our users want a long-term partner and to meet other people with the same intention.”
This way, no women waste time on guys who aren’t serious about them or don’t match their interests. They also have control over whom they want to talk to and when.
Coffee Meet Bagel’s Shark Tank Pitch
Like every other startup, all could have gone better for Coffee Meets Bagel initially.
But…
Despite raising a heavy investment from the renowned VC investor Lightbank, the company ran into losses in its first year. In numbers, this loss amounted to a million dollars every year. Yes, every year!
This made Dawoon, Arum, and Soo Kang think out of the box and approach more investors to bring their app’s finances back on track. Thus, they decided to pitch on Shark Tank, Season 6.
The Kang sisters had several meetings to agree on the offer of 5% equity for $500,000. This valued the online dating site at $10M back in 2015.
At first, this appeared to be a promising offer to the Sharks on the panel, but things changed quickly.
As soon as the founders finished their pitch, which was solely focused on the mission and vision of Coffee Meets Bagel, the panelists began a tense discussion among themselves. There were mixed opinions of the Sharks about the online dating app.
Once the discussion concluded, all investors, including angel investor Lori Greiner, viewed investing in CMB at that juncture as a risky affair. Billionaire Mark Cuban had a different notion, though. This raised everyone’s eyebrows.
He showed interest in offering the Kang sisters a deal, but it was a shocker for everyone on the panel and in the audience.
Mark proposed to buy the company for $30M.
It was definitely more than what the Kang sisters had initially valued their company at! This also implied that the biggest Shark in the tank had already made a conjecture that the online dating app would skyrocket and bring in more money than what it’s valued at currently.
The offer didn’t go well with the Kang sisters, who gracefully rejected it.
Following their offer-less exit from the show, the dating app closed off an estimated $7.8M Series A financing round led by existing investor DCM Ventures and Atami Capital-led $12M in Series B funding in February 2015 and May 2018, respectively.
Even the famous Hollywood actor and comedian Chris Tucker invested $500K in the online dating app. Presently, his equity in CMB has escalated to a value of nearly $7.2M, with the company’s net worth appreciating.
To date, Coffee Meets Bagel has raised over $23.2M in five rounds of investments.
Who Are the Founders of Coffee Meets Bagel?
Meet Dawoon Kang, Arum Kang, and Soo Kang, the proud Korean-American Coffee Meets Bagel founders.
Raised in an entrepreneurial family in Seoul, Korea, these three sisters possessed grand business ambitions.
And why won’t they?
While the father was in a scrap iron recycling business with his brother, the mother looked after a small shop to support the family of five financially.
The siblings watched their dad work tirelessly day and night to build his business over the years, navigating the various ups and downs crossing his path.
This fueled Dawoon, Arum, and Soo Kang to follow in their father’s footsteps and create something meaningful.
Soon after Dawoon and Arum turned 12, they migrated to the United States with their older sister, Soo Kang, to receive the best education in top universities. The parents stayed back in Korea to look after their respective businesses.
While Soo went for an MBA at Harvard University, Arum attended Stanford University. Dawoon was interested in graphic design, so she got admission to the Parsons School of Design.
Arum initially came up with the concept of Coffee Meets Bagel after finding various unattended pain points in current dating apps. According to her, almost all of them were men-centric and promoters of casual dating.
She discussed this with Dawoon and Soo, who took a little time to show interest in turning their sister’s idea into reality.
But this came at a cost!
The Kang sisters had to leave their high-paying jobs to shift focus to Coffee Meets Bagel.
Hence, Dawoon Kang signed off from her investor job at JPMorgan, and her older sister Soo Kang quit her job at Coty as a graphic designer for top beauty brands like Marc Jacobs and Sally Hansen.
Next what?
The app was first released in April 2012 in New York City and launched in Boston and San Francisco later that year.
Not just for the launch, but the year became extra special for the company for various reasons. They got their first investor onboard in the form of Lightbank, who invested a whopping $600,000 in the dating app.
Conclusion
Here you go, peeps. The journey of Coffee Meets Bagel is nothing less than a see-saw ride. It shows how embracing early rejection can fuel your growth later.
The Kang sisters valued their dating venture at just $10M in 2015.
Even they couldn’t have thought of it closing on over $150M eight years later — all thanks to their premium feature on a single Shark Tank episode.
