Correction, 18 October 2026: an earlier version of this story said hati charges £48 a week and had reached profitability within 12 months. Both were wrong. £48 was hati's total revenue when it pitched on Dragons' Den, and the company made no profitability claim. The headline and story have been rewritten; details are at the foot.
Steven Bartlett has invested £150,000 in hati, a UK dating app that replaces text chat with a five-minute phone call between matches, in exchange for 30% of the company. The deal was made on BBC One's Dragons' Den.
Founder Zaahirah Adam, who launched hati in 2025, asked the Dragons for £150,000 for 5% of the business, a valuation of £3 million. Bartlett's offer valued it at about £500,000. Touker Suleyman, guest Dragon Jenna Meek and Peter Jones declined to invest; Jones questioned the £3 million valuation.
How hati works
Instead of messaging, matched users book a five-minute call. Profiles use voice and video rather than static photos, and each user must be verified by three friends, a check aimed at catfishing. hati plans to earn a commission on dates arranged through the app and to add dating coaching later.
Early numbers
At the time of filming, hati had about 5,000 downloads. Asked by Deborah Meaden about revenue, Adam said: "We've done £48 of revenue so far!" The company has not published user, retention or revenue figures since.
Why it matters
hati is one of a group of start-ups trying to move daters away from endless swiping and messaging towards quicker real-world contact, alongside venue and events businesses such as Thursday and Breeze. Its revenue model, a commission on booked dates rather than a subscription, is untested at scale. Bartlett's backing brings publicity that a business at this stage would struggle to buy, but the numbers disclosed so far describe a company that had barely begun trading.
Sources: BusinessCloud: Steven Bartlett backs hati, a dating app with £48 revenue; Harvey Nash Tech Talks: Zaahirah Adam, founder of hati
Correction (18 October 2026): This story originally said hati charges users £48 a week (£2,496 a year), that the company said it had reached profitability within 12 months of launch, and that Steven Bartlett invested through his Flight Story fund, and it analysed hati's pricing on that basis. That was wrong. £48 was hati's total revenue when Zaahirah Adam pitched on Dragons' Den, hati plans to earn commission on booked dates rather than charge a weekly fee, no profitability claim was made, and the investment was made on the programme. The headline, summary and analysis have been rewritten.