LONDON – A British entrepreneur Shahzad Younas has developed a dating application specifically only for the Muslim community. Shahzad is the founder and chief executive of Muslim dating website and app Muzmatch.
It was two years ago, and the then 32-year-old British entrepreneur was in San Francisco pitching London-based Muzmatch to a group of high profile potential investors. He opened his address to the room by saying: “Muslims don’t date, we marry.”
Shahzad and his business partner Ryan Brodie were there because they had entered a global competition to win backing from prestigious Silicon Valley investment firm Y Combinator.
This US company offers financial and practical support to a number of new start-ups per year. More than 13,000 applied at the same time as Muzmatch, and it was one of 800 whose founders were invited to pitch in person.
During his speech, Shahzad had also revealed the details about the dating app saying that the investors were soon bursting into laughter at how keen he was in formulating a networking forum for Muslims. The Muzmatch was quickly given $1.5m (£1.2m), one of 100 start-ups that got backing in 2017.
Today the fast-growing company says it currently has more than one million registered users across the UK and some 90 other countries.
Rewind to 2013 and it wasn’t a group of investors that Shahzad had to convince, it was himself.
Back then he was working for a bank in the City of London. He enjoyed his job, but at the same time, he increasingly realised that there was a gap in the market for a decent dating app aimed at Muslims who were looking for a partner from within their religious community.
“At the time there were either these really basic websites for Muslims or big dating apps that didn’t quite get our culture,” says Shahzad, who was born and bred in Manchester.
“In the Muslim community, a lot of us did, and still do, rely on matchmakers [to find a wife or husband]. These are ‘aunties’ in the community who know families, and who would match up a son with another family’s daughter.”
His idea for Muzmatch was that it would be a digital matchmaker app for Muslims who wanted to find someone to marry.
So all the single Muslim bachelors and maidens, what are you waiting for? Download the app and find your soul mate. Give it a try.
