For investors, partners and acquirers

Invest in, partner with or acquire Rangmel.

Rangmel is a live LGBTQ+ dating app built for India, running since September 2026. It is open to investment, a strategic partnership or a full acquisition. This page sets out what exists today, how it could earn, what a buyer should worry about, and how to start a conversation.

Send an enquiry See the product

860registered accounts, live count

38published guides

16Indian cities with pages

The short version

What it is: A dating app for gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, non-binary and queer adults in India, 18+. Web app that installs on Android and iPhone.
Live since: September 2026, at rangmel.com
Business model: Free today, by design. An optional membership may come later; safety and privacy features will never be paid. Pre-revenue.
What sets it apart: Privacy by default for a market where being outed has real consequences: blurred photos until the member chooses, mutual-only messaging, rounded distance, quick exit and PIN lock, all free.
Technology: PHP 8.4 and MariaDB on a single cloud server. No proprietary platform, no vendor lock-in; a competent PHP developer can run it.
Open to: Minority investment, strategic partnership, or acquisition of the whole business.

What is already built

The product

Profiles with every identity option, mutual matching, chat, photo privacy controls, a daily points allowance that limits spam without a paywall, referrals, and an installable web app.

Trust and safety

Selfie and ID verification with documents encrypted at rest, an automated moderation queue, reporting and blocking, consent records, data export and deletion, and a grievance officer page under India's IT Rules.

Operations

An admin panel for members, verification, reports, chats, content and settings; sign-ups by acquisition source; an audit log; and Razorpay payments already integrated for when a membership is switched on.

Search and content

38 sourced guides on safety, rights and dating in India, city pages for 16 cities, comparisons with 20 other apps, Hindi pages, structured data, an XML sitemap, IndexNow and an llms.txt for AI search.

Early search traction

A snapshot from Google Search Console for the 28 days to 16 October 2026, about four weeks after the first guides were published: 90 clicks, 1,810 impressions, 5% click-through rate and an average position of 9.6 across 165 search queries. The top queries are local and specific, such as gay dating in Noida and Delhi, which is the kind of demand a privacy-first local app can win. Current figures and read access to Search Console and Analytics are available under NDA.

How it could earn

These are options, not forecasts. None of them is live, and none of them would charge for safety or privacy.

Optional membership. Convenience extras for members who want them, with the core app kept free. The payment flow is already built.
Events and community partnerships. Ticketed or sponsored meetups, Pride-season listings and partnerships with queer-friendly cafés and venues in the cities that already have pages.
Brand partnerships. Inclusive brands that want to reach queer Indians without targeting individuals, for example sponsoring a city guide or a safety resource. Member data is never sold or shared for advertising.
Strategic value. For an existing dating, social or matrimony business, a ready LGBTQ+ product and audience in India, without building trust and safety from zero.

What a buyer or investor should know

Better to read these here than to find them in diligence.

It is early. The app went live in September 2026. The member base is real but young, and it is thin outside the big metros.
No revenue yet. Being free is a deliberate choice that drives growth, and it means there is no revenue history to value.
A sensitive category. Members' sexual orientation and gender identity are sensitive personal data. Any owner must keep to the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, the IT Rules and app-store policies, and must keep up moderation.
Member data is not for sale on its own. If the business changes hands, member data moves only as the privacy policy and Indian law allow, and members are told first.
Competition. Large global apps already operate in India. The case for Rangmel is local trust and privacy, not size.

What we share after an NDA

Active users and retention by cohortSign-ups by sourceSearch Console and Analytics accessRunning costsCode walkthroughModeration and safety recordContent and keyword mapRoadmap

Start a conversation

Tell us who you are and what you have in mind. It goes straight to the founder, and serious enquiries get a reply by email.

Questions investors ask

Is Rangmel for sale?

Rangmel is open to conversations about investment, a strategic partnership or a full acquisition. There is no fixed asking price on this page; terms depend on the structure, and serious enquiries get figures under a non-disclosure agreement.

What would a buyer get?

The rangmel.com domain and brand, the full source code of the web app (PHP 8.4 and MariaDB), the content library of guides and city pages, the admin, moderation and verification tooling, and the operating know-how. Member data moves only as the privacy policy and Indian law allow, with members told first.

Does Rangmel make money today?

No. It is pre-revenue by choice: everything is free today, with an optional membership possibly later. Payment integration is already built, so a membership can be switched on without new engineering.

How many members does Rangmel have?

The live count of registered accounts is shown on this page and updates itself. Cohort retention, active users and acquisition costs are shared under NDA.

Why an LGBTQ+ dating app for India?

Consensual same-sex relations between adults have been legal in India since the Supreme Court's 2018 Navtej Singh Johar judgment, and the apps most queer Indians use were built elsewhere, with their most useful features behind paywalls. Rangmel was built for India from the start: privacy by default, mutual matching and safety tools that are free.

How do I contact the founder?

Use the enquiry form on this page. It goes straight to the founder, and every serious enquiry gets a reply.