Hinge's founder raises $18 million for Overtone, an AI dating service built around voice
Justin McLeod is leaving swipe culture behind. His new company uses AI to make a small number of carefully chosen introductions, not to feed an endless scroll.
Key points
- Justin McLeod, who founded the dating app Hinge, raised $18 million for a new company called Overtone in 2025.
- Match Group, which owns Hinge, Tinder and OkCupid, is among the investors, alongside FirstMark Capital and Pace Capital.
- A 2024 Forbes Health survey of 1,000 dating-app users found that 78 percent felt burnt out, spending about 51 minutes a day on apps with little to show for it.
- Overtone describes itself as a voice-and-audio-based service that uses AI to make a small number of curated introductions rather than showing users a pool of profiles to swipe through.
- The service will launch in select locations later in 2025, with relationship expert Esther Perel and Match CEO Spencer Rascoff joining its board.
Justin McLeod built Hinge into one of the world's best-known dating apps. Now he has raised $18 million to do something very different.
His new company, Overtone, does not want to be called a dating app. There are no profiles stacked with photos and statistics, no algorithmic feed trained to keep you scrolling, and no juggling of matches across dozens of simultaneous conversations. McLeod stepped down as Hinge's chief executive last year, and his former employer, Match Group, the company behind Hinge, Tinder and OkCupid, is now helping to fund whatever comes next.
So what is Overtone, exactly? McLeod describes it as a voice-and-audio-forward service: the company learns about each user by hearing them talk, in their own words, rather than by reading a bio they typed in two minutes. An AI system, trained software that can analyse information and identify patterns, then makes a small number of introductions the team believes are genuinely worth making. The company says it draws on relationship science and gives users a plain explanation of why each match was chosen.
Why does this matter for ordinary people looking for a date?
Because the current model is not working for most people. A 2024 Forbes Health survey found that 78 percent of dating-app users felt burnt out, despite spending around 51 minutes a day on the apps. All that time was not producing many lasting connections.
Most apps have responded by adding AI tools, such as chatbots that write opening messages for you or AI assistants that help build your profile. Overtone is betting on something narrower: use AI earlier, to filter who you ever hear from, rather than handing it a conversation that should feel personal.
First reported by TechCrunch AI, the story sits inside a broader shift. Newer apps like Ditto and Date Drop are making a similar bet, pairing users directly instead of throwing everyone into the same pool. The endless-choice model created a culture of ghosting, where people simply stop replying, and shallow connections that feel disposable.
Overtone has assembled a notable board. Relationship therapist and author Esther Perel, Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff, and leadership adviser Diana Chapman have all joined.
The service has no firm launch date yet beyond "later this year," and availability will be limited to certain cities at first. If you are tired of swiping, it is worth watching. Just do not cancel your current app quite yet.
