--- title: "222's App Store says 'this is not a dating app.' Its storefront sells blind dates on a $22 subscription" description: "Blind dates and dinners for existing friend groups, now live on 222's storefront, aim to stretch a $22-a-month subscription past the one-off curation fee the app launched on. The move puts 222's post-event data loop up against Match Group's Tinder and a newly private Bumble." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Platforms" published: 2026-10-15T23:15:41.178Z modified: 2026-10-15T23:15:41.178Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/222-s-app-store-says-this-is-not-a-dating-app-its-storefront-sells-blind-dates-on-a-22-subscription language: en keywords: "Dating Apps, Startups, Subscriptions, Consumer Apps, Social Apps" --- # 222's App Store says 'this is not a dating app.' Its storefront sells blind dates on a $22 subscription > Blind dates and dinners for existing friend groups, now live on 222's storefront, aim to stretch a $22-a-month subscription past the one-off curation fee the app launched on. The move puts 222's post-event data loop up against Match Group's Tinder and a newly private Bumble. 222 shipped version 222.6.13 of its app on October 15 [1], and the release leaves the startup's founding contradiction standing in public view. [Apple's listing](https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=222&entity=software&limit=10&country=us), published by TwoTwoTwo Inc., the New York company behind 222, still insists "this is not a dating app... no profiles, no DMs, no scrolling, no swiping." [1] That copy has carried the brand since the app first shipped in February 2024. [1] [The company's own storefront](https://222.place/) now sells a "blind date" with "5 close matches," next to a "dinner & wine bar" for "your 4 friends," a planning service for groups that already know each other. [2] 222 raised $10.1 million from venture investors in 2025. [3] That took total funding to $13.7 million, all raised on what cofounder Danial Hashemi calls engineering chance. [3] [5] It is now selling chance of the romantic kind, pulled by a data loop its founders argue no swipe-based rival has. [3] ## The training signal is a dinner, not a swipe Members start with a questionnaire of nearly 100 prompts, from taste to opinions on abortion, and the model places them into small-group dinners and bar nights with people it predicts they will like. [4] Chief executive Keyan Kazemian, chief operating officer Hashemi and chief technology officer Arman Roshannai have run the pipeline since 222 began as a Los Angeles dinner series in 2021. [4] The training signal arrives afterward. The platform asks who you would see again, and when two people both say yes, ["we fully set up the next date for them," reservation and all](https://www.msn.com/en-us/technology/artificial-intelligence/from-strangers-to-lovers-how-this-startup-is-simulating-the-meet-cute-with-ai/ar-AA1WVhrV), as Hashemi puts it. [3] Roshannai frames what the model learns: after two people spend an evening together, were they actually a good match? [3] A swipe records a first impression, that answer records whether the pairing worked, and Kazemian calls the resulting labeled data a "technical moat." [3] ## Blind dates turn one-off fees into a subscription that survives the match At the app's 2024 launch, a member paid [a one-time curation fee of about $17 per experience](https://www.businessinsider.com/startup-shifting-social-to-real-life-funding-raise-app-launch-2024-2). [4] A $22 monthly subscription bought repeat bookings. [3] [4] The new storefront lines change what the subscription buys: maintenance of the relationships 222 itself creates, for existing friends as much as for new matches. [2] Kazemian's stated aim is to own the member's "next offline moment," the follow-up hang or second date. [3] Every booked moment returns more feedback, tightening the loop. [3] A swipe app risks losing a subscriber when the match works; a service that keeps booking the couple's dinners keeps the revenue. ## The format now runs into Match Group, not around it [Match Group](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/match-group)'s Tinder [shipped free Group Hangouts on September 30](https://techmymoney.com/2026/09/30/tinder-group-hangouts-friends-group-matching/), letting friend groups match other friend groups for a night out, the same ground the four-friend dinner covers. [6] [Bumble](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/bumble), until this week the other listed dating stock, [agreed on October 13 to a $1.3 billion take-private](https://247wallst.com/investing/2026/10/13/bumble-soars-56-as-ithaca-holdings-agrees-to-take-it-private-at-6-05-a-share-match-group-advances-2/) by Ithaca Holdings. [7] Its paying base and revenue had been contracting for nearly two years. [7] The deal leaves Match Group, owner of Tinder and Hinge, the public name still trading on this demand, [pushing AI matchmaking into Europe](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/match-group-mtch-pushes-ai-101428575.html) while Tinder's paying base remains its open question. [7] [8] The private race is as direct: AI matchmaking startup Ditto raised $9.2 million, Hinge's founder left Match Group to build an AI dating alternative, and Partiful, the party-invite app, is edging into dating. [3] The demand underneath is real: [in a 2025 survey by the health company Hims](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ai-powered-social-app-aims-141300071.html), 77 percent of Gen Z respondents said they met their partner in person. [3] On store scale, though, the curated-IRL field is still small next to even a mid-tier swipe app: 222's 7,094 US App Store ratings put it alongside Timeleft, ahead of sonder, and well behind Luxy, a swipe app on [Apple](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/apple)'s store since 2014. [1] *Chart: **The curated-IRL apps are still ratings-small next to an older swipe app** Bar chart of US App Store rating counts: Luxy 105,145, Timeleft 8,699, 222 7,094, sonder 41* *US App Store user rating counts via Apple's iTunes search API, October 15, 2026; rating counts are a rough proxy for user scale. [1]* ## The loop is the asset, and the conversion is the test The App Store denial may be the funnel that brings swipe-fatigued members in the door; if so, the blind date is what can keep them paying after. [1] If the date line converts, 222 owns a subscription that persists through relationships instead of ending at them. The revenue from a match flows to whoever books the next table: Tinder's Group Hangouts leaves the plan to a shared group chat [6], and 222 sets the reservation itself. [3] Nothing public yet says whether it converts. The tests are concrete: whether the "not a dating app" line survives in the App Store copy now that the storefront sells blind dates, and what the next funding round reveals about whether subscribers stay once a match works. Everything about the format race says the incumbents believe it will. ## Takeaway 222's new blind-date and friend-group storefront lines turn a $22 subscription into something that survives the match, but conversion is untested against Tinder's free Group Hangouts and a field of much larger rivals. ## Sources 1. [Apple iTunes Search API, listing for "222 - find your people." by TwoTwoTwo Inc. (also returns Timeleft, sonder, Luxy), 15 October 2026](https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=222&entity=software&limit=10&country=us) 2. [222.place homepage, "222 - meet new people, discover your city, & deepen your relationships," 15 October 2026](https://222.place/) 3. [Business Insider (syndicated on MSN), Sydney Bradley, "From strangers to lovers: How this startup is simulating the 'meet-cute' with AI," March 2026](https://www.msn.com/en-us/technology/artificial-intelligence/from-strangers-to-lovers-how-this-startup-is-simulating-the-meet-cute-with-ai/ar-AA1WVhrV) 4. [Business Insider, Sydney Bradley, "The IRL social startup 222 is moving from LA to NYC as it launches an app and raises $2.5 million," 5 February 2024](https://www.businessinsider.com/startup-shifting-social-to-real-life-funding-raise-app-launch-2024-2) 5. [Fast Company via Yahoo Finance, Mariah Alanskas, "This AI-powered social app aims to end loneliness, by 'engineering chance,'" 27 June 2025](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ai-powered-social-app-aims-141300071.html) 6. [Tech My Money, Michael John-Anyaehie, "Tinder Group Hangouts Lets Friends Match With Other Groups," 30 September 2026](https://techmymoney.com/2026/09/30/tinder-group-hangouts-friends-group-matching/) 7. [24/7 Wall St., David Moadel, "Bumble Soars 56% as Ithaca Holdings Agrees to Take It Private at $6.05 a Share; Match Group Advances 2%," 13 October 2026](https://247wallst.com/investing/2026/10/13/bumble-soars-56-as-ithaca-holdings-agrees-to-take-it-private-at-6-05-a-share-match-group-advances-2/) 8. [Simply Wall St via Yahoo Finance, "Match Group (MTCH) Pushes AI Matchmaking Into Europe," 4 September 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/match-group-mtch-pushes-ai-101428575.html) --- 222's App Store says 'this is not a dating app.' Its storefront sells blind dates on a $22 subscription — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/222-s-app-store-says-this-is-not-a-dating-app-its-storefront-sells-blind-dates-on-a-22-subscription