- Forbes reported on 9 November that Chapter 2 founder Nicky Wake says she has raised more than $600,000 from the site's own members.
- Wake says the site has 25,000 members across the US, UK, Australia and Canada; earlier company-linked figures put membership near 20,000.
- Chapter 2 charges $34.99 a month to message, and Wake started it with $60,000 in seed money.
- DII has not seen a filing or round announcement confirming the raise.
Forbes reported on 9 November that Nicky Wake, founder of widowed-singles site Chapter 2, says she has raised more than $600,000 from the platform's own members after sending them a mailing seeking support. She is now preparing a new funding round, according to the article by Forbes senior contributor Elaine Pofeldt.
'Our biggest supporters are those who use the service,' Wake told Forbes. DII has not seen a funding filing or round announcement, so the figure rests on Wake's own account.
The DII Take
Subscribers who become shareholders are a loyalty signal that no retention dashboard can match, and a sensible answer to a niche too small for most investors. But the numbers around Chapter 2 do not yet reconcile, and a business funded by bereaved members carries a heavier duty of disclosure than most. The next round should come with clear figures.
Figures that do not yet line up
According to Forbes, Wake launched the site on $60,000 of seed funding from a small group of wealthy friends. Forbes says many user-investors have inheritances, and that UK backers want to use a law giving relief from inheritance tax on startup investments. One, Bryan Young, 57, from Columbus, Ohio, invested $60,000 after meeting his fiancée on the site.
Forbes quotes Wake on 25,000 members. Chapter 2's own blog in June 2025 said nearly 20,000, and Online Personals Watch, summarising a Prolific North report, said in September 2026 that membership was about 20,000. That summary also said Chapter 2 had raised £450K to date and reached break-even after three months of record revenue. The reports may be consistent, but none of them explains the gap.
Chapter 2 is free to join and charges $34.99 a month to send and receive messages. Members must verify widowed status, pass a recorded selfie check that Wake reviews personally, and have their IP address verified, because widowed people are often targeted by fraudsters, according to Forbes.
According to Forbes, Wake launched the site on $60,000 of seed funding from a small group of wealthy friends.
What to watch
Chapter 2's June 2025 blog stated an aim of a strategic exit to a major dating player within three to five years. For scale, Match Group (MTCH) said on 2 November that Tinder daily active users returned to year-on-year growth in September, as DII reported. Chapter 2 operates at a very different size.
The test is the new round: its size, its investor count and whether it uses the EIS scheme the company has previously cited.
- Member-funded rounds can fund small dating niches, but Chapter 2's raise is so far Wake's own claim to Forbes, not a document.
- Conflicting membership figures (25,000 against about 20,000) and funding figures ($600,000 against £450K) need reconciling before the next round.
Sources: Be Part of Our Future: The Next Chapter for Chapter Two Dating (Chapter 2 Dating); Match Group Announces Third Quarter Results (Match Group); A Dating Site for Widows Uncovers An Avid Pool of Investors: Its Users (Forbes); Chapter 2 Dating Reaches Break-Even After Record Revenue (Online Personals Watch)