India’s dating industry is Rs. 3600 crores ( USD 450 million) in size and growing at 20% per annum. The country is already the second largest dating market in the world , after USA. The Catalyst engaged in an insightful interaction with the father-son entrepreneurs behind flutrr to learn more about their app, its growth journey, technology involved, and future plans.
How do you position your App in a competitive landscape with popular apps around?
Kaushik Banerjee – flutrr is from India and for the Indians. We position it as a platform that emphasizes long-term relationships and where technology has no limits. At flutrr, language is never an obstacle because we use technology aptly to decode modern love. Just as the Indian diversity, our users get the opportunity to converse in 16 different languages, such as English, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada, and the next set of languages are going to be Garo, Khasi, and Assamese.
According to industry estimates, the Indian dating industry is worth Rs. 3600 crores (USD 450 million) and is growing at a rate of 20% per year. India is already the second largest dating market in the world, after the United States. Dating applications from around the world have made their way to India. The target audience for these kinds of apps is English-speaking urban youth with high disposable incomes.
At flutrr, we are pursuing solutions that are cost-effective and offer innovative interaction tools to tap into the vernacular market of India. As our key positioning factor, we bring old-school romance to the table.
What is the current user reach of your app and growth dynamics?
Anirban Banerjee – Launched in 2021, we have now reached 1 million downloads. There are 500 million non-English speaking youth in the world, only 9.8 percent of Indians speak English, and 82% of Google searches are performed in regional languages. These are some of the stats that encouraged us to build flutrr.
Today, we have 18% paid users. At flutrr, 15% of our users are women. We are committed to safeguarding the privacy and security of our users. We also have higher match rates than English dating apps.
Based on its innovative features that address safety and gender balance, flutrr reported revenues in FY24 of INR 2.5 Cr, an increase of 160% from INR 96 Lakh in FY23. Earlier this year, the platform raised INR 3.75 crore in funding from Zee Akaash News and aims to reach 2 million users by mid-2025 while maintaining profitability.
Please share information about the technology stack powering your App?
Kaushik Banerjee – Deep tech, Generative AI, and Large Language Models are revolutionizing the dating app landscape by enabling personalized, intelligent, and user-centric experiences. At flutrr, we utilize technology to understand nuanced user preferences, enhance matchmaking accuracy, and detect behavioral patterns. Our conversational AI judges the sentiments of the sender and prompts appropriate replies to make chats meaningful and interesting.
Additionally, our proprietary real-time language localization feature enables effortless, cross-language conversations. Type in the available language, and our platform will seamlessly translate it for the receiver to their mother tongue, thus dissolving language barriers for authentic communication.
With sophistication and technology, we look forward to redefining our App by fostering genuine connections and delivering highly curated, innovative experiences.
What measures do you take to ensure data privacy and security, and how do you safeguard against data breaches?
Kaushik Banerjee – At flutrr, user privacy and data security are our top priorities. To safeguard sensitive information, we employ a robust three-tier firewall architecture, ensuring multi-layered protection against potential threats. This advanced setup is designed to prevent unauthorized access, mitigate risks, and provide a secure environment for our users.
Additionally, we integrate Fraud Guards into our system to actively monitor and block suspicious activities. This feature plays a critical role in preventing memory leakage, which could expose sensitive data, and DDoS (attacks, which are designed to overwhelm and disrupt service availability.
What’s your approach to handling fake profiles or fraudulent activity on the platform?
Kaushik Banerjee – We want our users to grow connections without fear or apprehensions. With our face recognition algorithm, we weed out fake profiles. Furthermore, we prioritized the privacy and safety of women, especially in small towns. Our proprietary safety features have been implemented from the beginning and have been continuously enhanced over time. Among these features are face recognition for eliminating fake profiles, a no-screenshot policy to prevent cyber harassment, private mode messaging, profanity filters, the ability to block known contacts from the phonebook, location-hiding options for privacy, blur filters during video calls, and the ability to chat or match only with Aadhaar-verified profiles.
How do you leverage data for a personalized experience?
Anirban Banerjee – We leverage the power of Machine Learning through our advanced recommendation engine to enhance user experience. This engine analyzes user behavior, preferences, and engagement patterns to determine which profiles are most relevant to each user. It not only selects the profiles to display but also prioritizes them in an order that maximizes the chances of meaningful connections.
By using cutting-edge algorithms, our system ensures that every swipe or interaction feels personalized, helping users find matches that align with their interests and goals. This intelligent matchmaking approach sets flutrr apart as a dating platform focused on fostering genuine, long-term relationships.
What is Value for money at flutrr?
Anirban Banerjee – Experimentation runs at flutrr, currently, the app provides AI-driven features like a love coach. We have launched flutrr tunes. It is our very own AI music generator which will compose personalized songs according to the user’s moods. Gift a song and make your person feel special.
The team at flutrr is committed to building meaningful, long-term relationships. Our platform offers unrestricted access to all of India—free of paywalls—so users can explore connections beyond their local area.
Kindly comment on the boom of tech-startups and your key message for budding entrepreneurs.
Kaushik Banerjee – It is evident that India tech start-ups have pushed the boundaries of technology and introduced disruptive solutions across a range of industries. It is this spirit of innovation that is driving India’s economic transformation, encouraging the emergence of new industries, and enhancing India’s competitiveness globally.
Tech startups are more than just job creators; they are also actively contributing to the development and skilling of Indian work forces. My message for budding entrepreneurs is dream big, innovate boldly, and build solutions to become a game-changer.
The vernacular youth market in India remains largely underserved and untapped. flutrr is a conscious effort to bridge this gap by introducing a secure and accessible app tailored for this demographic. By leveraging technology to meet the unique needs of Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets, flutrr aims to create a cost-effective solution that resonates with users. This innovative approach not only addresses the challenges of inclusivity but also sets the stage for a transformative impact on how young people in these regions engage with technology and form meaningful connections.
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