Portuguese Dating App Eight Raises €3M Seed Funding
▼ Summary
– Eight is a video-first dating app that operates nightly from 8-9pm, connecting verified users through 30-second video intros and instant live calls instead of photo profiles or text.
– The app is raising a €3 million seed round and is currently live and available only in Portugal and the United Kingdom.
– Its core design is anti-engagement, featuring a strict one-hour window and no passive swiping to quickly move users into real conversations.
– A key feature is mandatory human verification, which aims to solve industry problems like fake profiles and ghosting.
– The founders plan to use the seed funding to expand the app into new markets, specifically Eastern Europe and the United States.
A new dating app from Portugal is challenging the industry’s core mechanics with a video-first, time-limited approach. Eight has secured €256,600 toward a €3 million seed funding round, aiming to expand beyond its current launch markets of Portugal and the United Kingdom into Eastern Europe and the United States. The platform’s entire design philosophy rejects the endless scrolling and text-based delays common to mainstream apps, focusing instead on rapid, authentic connections.
The app’s operation is built around a strict, shared schedule. It is only active for one hour each evening, from 8pm to 9pm. During this window, human-verified users log on to browse brief, 30-second video introductions from other members. If interest is mutual, they can immediately unlock an 8-minute live video call. Text chat is deliberately disabled until after both parties have agreed to a live conversation, flipping the standard script of digital dating.
This structure is a direct response to widespread user frustrations. The founders pinpoint fake profiles and ghosting as two of the most damaging issues in the current market. By mandating video introductions and synchronous live interaction, Eight seeks to foster genuine engagement and reduce the anonymity that enables those problems. The entire model is explicitly anti-engagement, engineered not to maximize screen time but to efficiently move people from the app into real-time conversation.
Leading the venture is CEO Afonso Simão, a serial entrepreneur who previously founded and grew the fitness brand Miofar to over $1.2 million in revenue. Co-founder Moreira da Cruz contributes extensive sales and growth expertise, including an MBA in digital marketing and a background as a top enterprise account executive in SaaS.
Eight enters a global dating app market valued at $6.18 billion in 2024, serving an estimated 364 million users. While other platforms have experimented with video features, Eight is distinctive in making video the sole mode of initial contact. Its architecture eliminates photo profiles, passive swiping, and drawn-out text exchanges, betting that users are tired of the old formulas and ready for a more direct, scheduled approach to digital romance.
(Source: The Next Web)