A new Irish matchmaking app has soared in popularity, and already has more than 2,000 users since its launch less than a month ago.
‘LuvGuru’ puts the matchmaking power in the hands of your friends. To find a date, a mutual friend must recommend you to each other.
"The most common way people meet their long-term partner is through mutual friends," says Liam Grant, the co-creator of LuvGuru.
"That's what we're trying to play off and bring that to a digital platform."
There have already been quite a few successful dates set up through the app.
Grant and his fellow app creator Louisamay Hanrahan gown grew up in Lisdoonvarna, an Irish town with a reputation for matchmaking.
Grant says that growing up in Lisdoonvarna, which hosts an annual matchmaking festival every September, inspired him to give it a go himself.
"I guess it was mostly inspired by the culture of matchmaking that would have existed in Ireland. I heard that there used to be a matchmaker in every town and they would have a big, old book and set you up with someone through that," he told Independent.ie.
"I thought that was kind of funny, but kind of cool, so we're trying to set that up again."
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If potential matchmakers successfully match a few couples though the app, they will be rewarded with prizes.
"At the moment we've been approaching other start-up businesses in Ireland to get weekly and monthly prizes from them," Grant said.
"At the last party we had, we presented prizes to matchmakers from Modern Botany, a company based in West Cork who make all natural oils. We think it's a good partnership opportunity."
He says one of the biggest problems facing the five-person LuvGuru team is trying to get people in relationships to download the app and set up their friends.
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"People have a misgiving when I explain the concept. They go 'no sorry, I'm in a relationship' or 'my wife won't like that' and they shut it off immediately like it's another Tinder.
"We want to make it clear that it's an entirely different thing."
However, Grant is not too concerned about the app’s success, despite these troubles.
"A lot of other dating sites, you're generally on it alone and you're looking through people alone and you're not really interacting with your friends very much," he said.
"So that [interaction] what we want to achieve and I think we can do it.
"We can be a billion dollar company."
'LuvGuru' is available on both Android and iOS.
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