Dating Apps For All Is Common, But Rekindle Provides An Unprejudiced Platform Strictly For Separated And Widowed People.

• BySheetal Sidhu     |    June 13, 2021

“Keep it simple, investors are looking for revenue and profit, present them with an alive idea instead of a thought,” Abhishek Kashyap, Founder and CEO, Rekindle engaged in a deep and engaging conversation with Startup story.

Abhishek, after pursuing a career path in engineering followed by MBA in marketing and general management, juggled between a number of roles and responsibilities until  the  path of entrepreneurship finally dawned upon him, while still underway understanding the startup ecosystem. “Entrepreneurship brought me a sense of responsibility, power and helped me feel good.”

Rekindle: Research and concept

Studies show that the number of divorces have spiked up significantly in India, Abhishek said that there is a segment of people mostly falling between the age of 30 and above who have been divorced, separated, widowed and single parents and have a hard time on overcrowded dating app giants ;ike Tinder, Bumble etc. When asked by Startup story that what was the barrier leading to this problem for these people, to this Abhishek replied that when he was conducting research for the platform he asked these questions to a number of people to which, most women replied  there was a sense of judgement, manipulation and a drastic change in the way conversations changed after it came into open that she was either divorced or separated as for men they were having trouble in finding a match in the first place, in other cases the conversations would end abruptly.

Abhishek told Startup story that he wanted these people to have a safe space, a judgement free platform and a place of understanding where others can recognize the place where you have come from and openly acknowledge their status and also have an equal chance and opportunity to go forth with dating.

Rekindle, a name meaning relight had a thorough connect with the idea Abhishek was trying to bring through with Rekindle, he told Startup story that the name was suggested by a friend although the name they previously chose was ‘emerge’, but when the name ‘rekindle’ came forward he knew that people would easily understand the concept relating it to the name of the platform. He further told Startup story that they launched the platform in the previous year 2020, while the app had recently come up in April. Telling us more about his app Abhishek said that he chose a very minimalistic and simple design for the app, which is also easy to use. His customers have loved the design and the app overall. As for the tem at Rekindle they believe in the lean model and have a mix of experienced and non-experienced people, they are also on a lookout for a Co-founder to join them.

Future plans for Rekindle

When asked about his expansion plans and the next step, Abhishek told Startup story that there was a well thought out timeline for everything. He saw Rekindle as a global brand and wanted to penetrate into Singapore and the United Kingdom. Rekindle is also on the way to raising around 2-3 crores in a fundraising round to be held soon. They were also targeting getting 10k+ downloads by July.

Abhishek also told Startup Story that he had gained a lot of support from Meteor venture, from financial feedback. To get leads they have now become an integral part of Rekindle.

Eliminating competition and marketing plans

Abhishek said that as far as competitors are concerned mega dating app giants like Tinder, Bumble and many others are market competitors for them and are not either. He said that there are a number of divorced people who use these other dating apps which to some extent make them prospective competitors but at the same time they have a completely different brand narrative from that of Rekindle. As they as a company are only focussed on just a particular group of people which include separated, divorced and single parents. They have a very narrow and fixed customer set. They do not entertain single people on the platform and this makes them stand out from any other dating apps.

Startup story asked Abhishek about what was his marketing strategy to reach his target customers as Rekindle only allows a small segment of people on the platform, Abhishek said that ‘profitable and small is the way for me’, he has signed some major names in the industry who will be promoting Rekindle on a bigger stage, demographically the customers in his targeted range are usually well-settled, financially stable people as compared to the crowd on any other dating apps. Lastly, he would also use social media including Facebook, Instagram and also LinkedIn to promote the brand.

Major Setbacks and the impact of the Pandemic

Abhishek said that the journey of an entrepreneur is full of challenges and it has been very testing for him as well. He has had major ups and downs. Rekindle being bootstrapped makes handling the finances a bit hard as well. He has also had a lot of learning experience while on the journey which has on the whole helped him develop his personality and the product. The pandemic only added on to problems as being on a standstill, and following a monotonous schedule slightly triggered stress.  But he successfully dodged it by communicating with near and dear ones.

“Communication worked for me, read books, listen to podcasts, keep you mind engaged.” Abhishek, Founder and CEO, Rekindle.

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