Impact Stories

salt-header.png

S A L T

Reimagining How Christians Find Love - Paul Rider and SALT App Raises $370,000

 
 

Paul was enjoying life. He had a great church and wonderful friends. He had the dream role in FinTech, riding the growth wave of a fantastic company. But he was still looking for the right person to share his life with, and like many, was finding it hard to meet someone.

Enter the world of online dating. What a mess. People swiping left and right, some looking for hook-ups and others dreaming about meeting Mr or Mrs Right. For those looking to meet another Christian - the products left a lot to be desired!

Paul stuck with it and found Sophie. But God also put something else on his heart. A vision to improve the experience for other Christians, a dating app that would transform the way people navigate the relationship journey and re-imagine what society is saying to singles about who they are in Christ.

SALT was born and within days of launch had thousands of users. Profitability came quickly and things were taking off in London where they started. The vision was to expand to serve Christians globally and invest in content, products and ways of supporting Christians through singleness, dating, building relationships and preparing for marriage. In order to do that, SALT needed additional capital to scale.

Enter Marketplace.

 
 

FDI’s Demo Day led to the connection with a local network

 
1.5bullet.png

Oversubscribed with a waiting list of investors

 
1.5bullet.png

Closed $370,000 from first investment

 

A friend in the UK running a Christian business accelerator introduced Paul to the FDI team and the response was positive right away. Not only did his team have the chops to pull it off but the disruptive difference they were offering to the dating scene was inescapable. Demo Day came soon after and one of the active investors from the ecosystem heard the SALT story and thought friends in a local Angel network might also be interested. They brought the deal to their network and suddenly Paul was oversubscribed with investors on a waiting list for the next round.

Like many entrepreneurs, God started with Paul’s journey, and then allowed us at FDI to join Him on the road to build a great business for the glory of God.