- Joiner secures €500K angel round, bringing total investment to €1.2M
- Free-to-use app already has 40,000 downloads and thousands of daily active users
- Tackling the global loneliness epidemic with friendship-first, group-based activities
Joiner, the social platform helping people make real-life friends through shared activities and events, has raised €500K in an angel funding round, bringing the company’s total investment to €1.2 million. The company will use the funding to enhance product stability, test monetization features, and establish groundwork for expansion into new European markets. The free-to-use app has been downloaded 40,000 times across the Baltics and Poland and now sees around 1,500 daily active users.
Loneliness has become a defining challenge of modern life. In 2023, the World Health Organization declared it a global public health threat, with more than 30% of young adults saying they feel lonely every day. In Europe, one in eight people report feeling lonely most or all of the time. At the same time, the era of dating apps as the go-to solution for meeting new people is rapidly ending. Users are increasingly frustrated with these apps, with a Forbes Health survey finding that 78% of users feel “dating app burnout,” and younger generations increasingly see these apps as misaligned with their values. This growing gap has created demand for easier, pressure-free ways to meet people offline.
Joiner solves this problem by connecting people through shared activities. Whether you’ve just moved to a new city or want to expand your social circle, the app helps you find people with similar interests and start building friendships. By focusing on casual, group experiences, Joiner removes the pressure of one-on-one meetings, while making genuine connections feel natural and helping users get involved and shape different communities.
“At Joiner we’re tackling one of the biggest challenges of our time – loneliness. We know the model resonates because we have attracted tens of thousands of users on almost no marketing spend. There is a genuine organic demand for genuine, social experiences. The new funding will help us to bring Joiner to new locations and start scaling based on what we’ve validated so far,” said Eduard Titov, Founder and CEO of Joiner.
Activities range from bar crawls and board game nights to running clubs, day hikes, and car shows. Expats and locals alike have become natural ambassadors, with positive word-of-mouth complementing social media campaigns. Dedicated users often grow into popular hosts themselves by organizing shared activities directly on the platform.
“Dating apps are transactional. Joiner is transformational. We’re not selling events, we’re creating moments. We create space to meet a new friend, to try something new, to have the kind of spontaneous night out that makes you feel you belong here. We’re building something much more valuable than another social feed,” said Juratė Plungyte, Co-founder and CMO of Joiner.
Since launch, Joiner has developed a unique business model that has attracted influencers to serve as event creators and hosts. This has opened up new monetization opportunities through business partnerships with venues and in-app ticket sales, as well as reinforced Joiner’s visibility and growth. People that organise activities people love should be rewarded, and the Joiner team believes that, by providing them with the right tools, they should be able to make a living out of it.
“We want Joiner to feel like magic. Magic is when you open the app, find the right event, and meet people you genuinely connect with. That’s what keeps people coming back,” added Titov. “When Airbnb started, people thought it was crazy to invite strangers into your home. Now it feels normal. Joiner is the same, but for meeting people. We’re normalizing the idea of inviting strangers to share an activity and turning them into friends.”
The new funding will support app improvements, including UX upgrades to chat and event creation features. Joiner also plans to test a subscription model offering premium features for both attendees and organisers. Next, Joiner plans to expand to mid-sized European cities with strong expat and digital nomad communities, beginning with Prague, Lisbon, and Málaga in early 2026.
