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As Expected, Tinder Buys Humin to Goose Better Relationships

A deal to give the popular dating app some more tech.

Humin via Vimeo

As Re/code previously reported it would, Tinder has officially acquired contact management startup Humin.

The Los Angeles-based dating app is buying the technology and intellectual property of the San Francisco company, as well as hiring the top execs at Humin, although not all its employees. Co-founders Ankur Jain and David Wyler will become Tinder’s VP of product and partnerships, respectively, and most Humin engineers will be offered jobs.

Neither company would say how much Tinder paid in the deal, but it seems the technology is the most attractive aspect of it. Humin’s products include a contacts app, as well as a connection service called Knock Knock.

While never publicly disclosed, the well-connected Jain (son of prominent Silicon Valley entrepreneur Naveen Jain) managed to tap his tony network to raise $15 million in three rounds. While some venture firms were in the mix, that was largely from high-profile individual investors such as Eric Schmidt, Richard Branson, Ari Emanuel, Troy Carter, Kevin Spacey, Will.i.am and even Jeb Bush Jr.

But the startup failed to gain traction and had recently lost some staffers, including its product head Arielle Zuckerberg. So, given the contracting funding environment, this landing is probably a good move, as well as being inevitable.

“We’re excited to leverage their experience and IP to accelerate our product roadmap along with some other exciting projects we have in the works,” said Tinder CEO Sean Rad.

Last week, Re/code reported that Tinder was in discussions with Humin. The strategic acquisition comes as Tinder added to its management team last week. That included the hiring of Maria Zhang, a prominent engineering exec from Yahoo.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.