The Runner-up of “The Apprentice” hits a £120,000 crowdfunding target for her dating app

Back in July the year, Vana Koutsomitis, a finalist on a TV show “The Apprentice”, created a dating app which has smashed its initial crowdfunding target of £120,000. She first revealed the concept for DatePlay – a combination of dating and gaming – on the BBC program in the previous year. Though she received praise for the idea, Lord Sugar eventually decided to finance in Joseph Valente’s plumbing business.

Despite that, Koutsomitis’ one-month campaign to crowdfund the launch of her new app on Seedrs had received £150,020 in pledges from 110 investors.

“I am absolutely thrilled that we reached our goal in less than three days. Reaching £150,000 on Seedrs further cements that people do support not only me but also the concept behind DatePlay,” she said.

Koutsomitis supplemented that the company will overfund to £300,000.

“We want everyone to come on board to prove Lord Sugar wrong,” added Koutsomitis, whose app idea was rejected by The Apprentice boss.

“We’ve had so much encouragement and messages of support, which has been awesome. I hope that this will also inspire other women to follow their dreams to raise funds for their tech startups.”

With the overflowing support, the DatePlay app is expected to be launched in the autumn.

It was previously under development and the funds raised from the Seedrs campaign was used chiefly for marketing purposes. Koutsomitis claims her dating app, which she’s cofounded with Oxford University friend Joris Magenti, is unlike any other dating platform that’s on the market today.

The app will use collaborative games to try and comprehend your personality before recommending possible matches for singletons to swipe left or right on.

She told Business Insider:  “The difference between DatePlay and the others is that we add an element of fun to the dating experience by integrating games into the interface. Tinder can engage you for short periods of time but once you have enough matches and once you’ve swiped left and right enough times, you start to get a little bit crazy. You’re just like, over it.”

Crowdfunding for such startups are deemed riskier but can be rewarding and it’s not just about the return on investment. It’s just another example of how crowdfunding campaigns help to make entrepreneurs beat the challenges of using the conventional banks to raise funds and not really understand new, innovative and modern business practices of today (and tomorrow).