What Happened To The Coffee Meets Bagel App From Shark Tank Season 6?

DGIX

April 2, 2025

For those seeking more substantial relationships, traditional dating apps typically fall short. This mindset is what fueled sisters Ahreum, Dawoon, and Soo Kang to create a dating app designed for those seeking meaningful connections with Coffee Meets Bagel. Along with having some impressive traction on its own, the company and its namesake product even proved attractive enough to appear on “Shark Tank.”

The business came to be in 2012 while the Kang sisters were living in New York City. Having long desired to start a business together, the trio soon came to realize that there was a need for a higher quality dating app that catered to those seeking serious relationships. More specifically, they found that a majority of dating apps were designed for and used by men, and sought to create one that could effectively retain women. From there, Coffee Meets Bagel was born, which emphasizes quality matches by linking to a user’s Facebook account to better pinpoint their preferences and make mutual matches.

In the same season as other app pitches of varying success from the hit Scholly to the more skeptical Tycoon Real Estate, Coffee Meets Bagel came on the scene to see if it would be a match with the sharks. The Kang sisters’ business model and strategy for growth was admirable, but many of the investors backed out due to how the team were handling its finances. At the end, billionaire Mark Cuban made a move that went down in “Shark Tank” history — which was made all the more jaw-dropping given the sisters’ reaction.

What happened to Coffee Meets Bagel on Shark Tank?

The Kang sisters sought $500,000 in return for a 5% of Coffee Meets Bagel. The trio described how their company went from $87,000 in 2013 to $270,000 within the first half of 2014. The service itself is free, but users can access premium features using virtual currency known as coffee beans. Every coffee bean costs around two cents, with certain features costing as much as 95 beans.

The team was vague on how many users were on the platform, only stating that it was in the hundreds of thousands. This frustrated the Sharks and Mark Cuban even went out. The sisters explained their plans for growth, expecting to hit $1 million by year’s end and $10 million the following year. However, they had yet to be profitable, largely due to development and marketing costs as well as each sister’s $100,000 salary. Due to their plans to pour upwards of $4 million into marketing, they expected to make nothing on the projected $1 million and at best break even on the $10 million estimate.

While the investors saw value in the business model, they felt that the team was not utilizing its resources properly and that the equity stake was too low. In a surprise move, Cuban came back in with a truly epic proposal — to purchase the entire business outright for $30 million, the largest offer made in “Shark Tank” history. Much to the Sharks’ surprise, the sisters declined his proposition, knowing that their company had the potential to be as big as Match.com and similar competitors.

Coffee Meets Bagel after Shark Tank

Rejecting Mark Cuban’s gargantuan offer was gusty move that drew varied reactions, with some viewers even sending in hate emails to the Coffee Meets Bagel team criticizing their decision. In a 2017 interview with Forbes, COO and co-founder Dawoon Kang shared that despite appreciating the offer as validation for their efforts, they ultimately realized they’d be selling themselves short if they went through. “Yes, we absolutely made the right decision,” Dawoon said. “I still feel like we are at the beginning of this journey of transforming the way people date and the way people think about online dating. We want to continue working hard to realize our vision.”

The team was right to trust their gut, as Coffee Meets Bagel reached some exciting highs in the aftermath of its time on the show — but not without its fair share of challenges. The month following the initial broadcast on January 9, 2015 saw the team landed $7.8 million in funding, with prior investor DCM Ventures and newcomers Azure Capital and Quest Ventures taking part in the Series A financing round. Three years later, they received $12 million in Series B funding, this time led by Atami Capital.

The app faced some major hurdles in the following years. On Valentine’s Day 2019, a major breach was reported that saw the data of more than 6 million Coffee Meets Bagel users get affected, along with hundreds of millions of others using platforms such as top-rated health and fitness app MyFitnessPal and Dubsmash. A similar instance occurred on August 30, 2023 when the company’s system was breached by a hacker, causing international outages that lasted for several days.

Is Coffee Meets Bagel still in business?

As a business dedicated to forming long-lasting relationships, it should come as no surprise that Coffee Meets Bagel continues to run to this day. The app is available for free on both the iOS App Store and Google Play. While users can sign up for the service for free, the company introduced a monthly $35 subscription in 2017 to unlock its premium service. Among the perks that come with this option include being able to view your likes and activity stats, getting unlimited suggestions, and being able to boost your profile once a month for increased traffic.

The service itself has received mixed to positive reception from across the board. While places such as the iOS App Store have it rated 4.4 stars on average, others have been more split, such as Google Play where it holds a 3.4-star rating or PCMag which gave the app three stars. Opinions differ from person to person, with some appreciating the app’s slower-pace that allow them to focus more on finding quality partners rather than endlessly scrolling. Others find these limitations to be frustrating, while also complaining about recurring functionality issues.

Nevertheless, Coffee Meets Bagel remains popular and has succeeded in creating meaningful relationships. According to its iOS App Store description, more than 150 million matches have been made through the app. The company itself has also skyrocketed in value over the years, with $36 million in yearly revenue with an estimated net worth of $150 million as of 2024.

What’s next for Coffee Meets Bagel?

Given the massive amount of competition out there, getting a dating app to succeed is a near-impossible task — with later “Shark Tank” pitches such as the Hater and Tabby dating apps being prime examples. This makes Coffee Meets Bagel’s accomplishments all the more astounding. Despite experiencing its fair share of challenges with finances, technical malfunctions, and user feedback, the dynamite team behind the product have not shown any signs of slowing down. Instead, they’ve seen great success and growth as a result of their tireless efforts.

Coffee Meets Bagel’s growth mindset is as present today as ever before. In recent years, the team have been putting its best foot forward to bring their app to a greater international audience, after having largely served U.S.-based customers over the years. As part of this initiative, the team brought on renowned tech executive Shn Juay as the company’s international CEO in July 2024.

Along with extensive experience in transforming several online entertainment services, Juay worked in various leadership positions at the Southeast Asian-based dating platform Paktor. Describing her excitement for joining the team in a LinkedIn post, Juay stated, “Returning to the dating industry feels like coming home. My six transformative years at Paktor showed me the profound impact matchmaking has—helping singles find love and connection. This work is more than a business; it’s a calling.”

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