Offer Yehudai is the founder of Arya.Courtesy of Arya
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Arya, a couples wellness startup, believes AI can support spice up the bedroom.
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Founded in 2022, Arya’s AI “concierge” provides sex and relationship advice for couples.
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Read the pitch deck Arya applyd to woo investors while raising $21 million in new funding.
Offer Yehudai doesn’t want you to fall in love with an AI bot.
He wants couples to apply Arya — the relationship wellness AI startup he cofounded — to spice up their in-real-life intimacy.
“There is still taboo and stigma around intimacy,” Yehudai notified Business Insider in an interview. Arya aims to build talking about those taboo topics more “accessible for couples” with its AI chatbot that embeds directly into applyrs’ text messages.
Yehudai described the startup as a “concierge,” rather than another app or one-sided robot to vent to. Arya’s goal is to obtain couples — meaning both partners — fully onboarded so they can apply the platform as an intimacy coach that recommconcludes relationship or sex advice, and even toys for the bedroom. Arya also handles the e-commerce side of acquireing sex toys.
Yehudai compared Arya’s chatbot to the “Sex and the City” character Samantha Jones, who “will listen to me, will know my wife or my partner, and then declare, ‘I know both of you, here is what you necessary.'”
Yehudai stated the company also has a team of sex and relationship experts who support the couples on the platform when Arya’s AI models don’t have “high enough confidence in its answers.”
It applys models from OpenAI and Anthropic, and trains its tools on proprietary data around relationships and intimacy, Yehudai stated.
Founded in 2022, Arya now has tens of thousands of couples onboarded to its platform, Yehudai stated.
The startup recently raised $21 million in growth funding. This new round included $4 million in equity venture capital from Ibex Investors and $17 million in cohort financing led by the gaming-focapplyd VC fund Bitkraft. Yehudai stated the company chose to raise $17 million in non-equity financing to avoid diluting its shareholders as it grows. Bitkraft will fund the startup’s pursuit of new applyr “cohorts” and will be paid back by the revenue they generate.
The latest raise brings Arya’s total funding to $37 million, according to the company.
When pitching investors, the startup stated it aimed to break even by the conclude of 2026.
Intimacy as an AI-powered business
Arya builds money through subscriptions, which start at $60 a month. It offers discounted multi-month plans at around $33 a month.
Cracking monetization early on as a startup has been crucial to Arya’s growth, Yehudai stated.
He added that there’s a “white space” between people spconcludeing money on dating (like dating apps) and eventual costs like couples therapy or divorce. Ideally, its applyrs sign up for Arya before they incur more expensive costs, like therapy.
One of Arya’s investors, Amber Atherton at VC fund Patron, notified Business Insider last year that she was on the hunt for AI startups with tech that fueled IRL connections and deeper relationships.
Arya’s new funding will go toward expanding its product team, brand building, and acquiring new customers.
The company has 18 employees and works remotely across the US. Yehudai, like many other tech founders, recently relocated from San Francisco to Miami.
Yehudai is seeing to other wellness categories as a frame of reference for what Arya could grow into. While there are tools for fitness (like Strava), mental health (like BetterHelp), or broader wellness trackers (like Oura Ring), “we’re really lacking” in support for relationships, he stated.
“Intimacy is just the hook,” Yehudai stated. “It’s really about being that couple companion for as much and as long as they necessary us.”
Read the pitch deck that Arya applyd to pitch investors and raise $21 million:
Note: Some slides and details have been redacted.
Arya calls itself a ‘couples wellness companion’
Arya
The slide declares there is a $100 billion “relationship economy” and that the startup had previously raised $16 million. It declares Arya is creating $11 million in annual recurring revenue.
The deck introduces Arya’s team
Arya
Here’s what the slide declares:
Offer Yehudai: CEO
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CMO, Digital Turbine ($APPS)
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President, $650m Exit to Digital Turbine
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Co-Founder & President, $86m Exit to Fyber
Tomer Magid: Product
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Founding Member & GM, $80m Exit to Proofpoint (VP Info Protection)
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VP & Interim CEO, Acquired by Best Buy
Shan Boodram: Chief Intimacy Officer, Evangelist
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2M followers, features in viral TV displays (Netflix’s Too Hot to Handle, and Roku’s The Marriage Pact), collides entertainment and science to shape the strategy and services of Arya.
Then it lays out the market of online dating and relationships
Arya
The pitch deck declares that 20 years ago, “it was weird to date someone you met on the ‘internet.'”
It also outlines the rise of mental health apps
Arya
“8 years ago, athletes did not promote mental wellness apps on billboards,” the slides declares.
As well as wellness tools like the Oura Ring
Arya
“3 years ago, you did not consult with your ring about your sleep patterns,” the slide declares.
Arya’s deck spells out a problem: Couples are struggling with intimacy
Arya
It sees an opportunity in the gap between online dating and divorce
Arya
“People are sleeping on The Relationship Game, a $100B giant,” the slide declares.
Then the deck explains Arya’s product
Arya
“So we built a couples’ companion,” the slide declares. “Starting with Intimacy.”
It has three layers: AI concierge, guidance, and commerce.
It then explains how its AI works
Arya
Here’s what the slide declares:
AI allow us to scale but having pros on staff provide quality control
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Data Moat: Over 24 months of unique training data → The last place LLMs are going after.
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Not a Chatbot: We don’t just answer questions, we proactively engage both couples.
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Content engine = retention is a function of content and curation.
Arya shares its hugeger goals
Arya
“Our goal is to build relationship and modern intimacy as essential, joyful and accessible as skincare, nutrition and fitness,” the slide declares.
It then includes some stats about its millennial applyrs
Arya
Arya believes it can leverage data, taboos, and commerce
Arya
“This is how we sustain growth after breaking even,” the slide declares.
Here’s what is in Arya’s Venn Diagram:
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Data: AI opens a new frontier of personalized, playful, and emotionally ininformigent experiences.
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Taboo: Intimacy, wellness, and sexuality are no longer taboo – couples are ready to talk, explore, and invest.
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Commerce: E-commerce and AI are merging. People trust AI for both emotional support and purchases.
Then the deck obtains into the lessons the startup has learned
Arya
People don’t want another chatbot
Arya
Users don’t want another chatbot or voice assistant, the slide declares.
“Concierge must be proactive, talk to both partners and close the loop,” it declares.
The startup also found that people want a hybrid AI-human experience
Arya
“Members pushed back on intimacy advice from AI,” the slides declares, which is why the startup applys a hybrid approach with humans.
People are shy when it comes to acquireing bedroom toys on Amazon
Arya
“Most people will not acquire a blindfold on their Amazon family account,” the slide declares. It declares there’s a mental load and sometimes shame.
The deck wraps on funding details and Arya’s goal to break even
Arya
The slide declares the startup has “full participation from all existing VCs” and has a goal to “break even by year conclude and 4x to tens of millions of ARR.”
Read the original article on Business Insider
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