by Taylor Soper on April 5, 2017 at 11:36 am April 7, 2017 at 7:23 am

Noise the alarm for ladies searching for one thing apart from old-fashioned relationship apps: Siren is shutting straight down.

The app that is seattle-based which billed it self as an option to web sites such as for instance Tinder and Match.com with a consider empowering females, is shutting its doorways after operating away from cash.

Siren co-founder Susie Lee penned a post detailing the reasons for the company’s shutdown tuesday. She noted that Blackrun Ventures, which just last year spent $225,000 as an element of Siren’s seed round, had never “completed their obligation.”

“Instead, we received little, unpredictable quantities, because of the other investors fearlessly stepping forward,” Lee had written. “Through the commitment of those committed individuals we had been in a position to carry on development, nonetheless we’re able to never ever prepare beyond a couple of months, hindering development, milestones, and brand new capital possibilities.”

In a job interview with GeekWire, Lee said that “all closing docs have been finalized, but never completed their dedication.”

“Instead, they issued tiny, unpredictable tranches, frequently with months in between, despite sometimes daily requested updates and repeated assurances,” Lee noted.

Blackrun Ventures, which spent included in its women-focused investment arm, nevertheless lists Siren on its profile web page. We’ve reached away into the company for lots more details and certainly will upgrade this post whenever we hear straight back. Modify: on, Blackrun responded to GeekWire and provided this statement friday:

“Blackrun Ventures joined up with lots of investors to take part in Siren’s $500,000 seed financing round. While the investor that is lead we committed $225,000, of which 75% ended up being disbursed throughout the last one year following conclusion of research.

We had been focused on supplying the rest for the investment to aid Siren’s expansion, and delivered our consultant to utilize the united group to their strategic way. Regrettably, the founders made the decision on April 4th to shut along the business.

The app that is dating is crowded and highly competitive, but our cause of purchasing Siren had been strategic, so we had been won over by the vision and passion for the company’s founders. However, we respect their choice. although we nevertheless see prospect of business, especially internationally,”

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“Despite the uncertainty shadowing us, we did our better to build on our energy, doing every thing in your capacity to remain afloat,” Lee composed into the post. “But without a means to harness and circulate funds for expansion, we just could perhaps not develop fast sufficient. The efforts of two co-founders alone are not adequate to take on the companies that are well-funded this room. Unfortuitously, this comes at the same time whenever Siren revealed strong traction—relocation and expansion to nyc, the forming of key partnerships, and individual success tales that tell us we had been onto one thing unique.”

Siren CEO Susie Lee celebrates the App regarding the Year win at the 2015 GeekWire honors.

Created in 2014 by Lee and co-founder Katrina Hess, whom served as COO, Siren differentiated it self off their dating apps by prioritizing women’s security and permitting users to interact through their responses to day-to-day concerns given by neighborhood organizations and regional icons that are cultural. The software relied on discussion as a point that is starting than long pages or picture searching.

“We’ve created the very first platform that is mobile for unforeseen and constructive flirting,” Lee told GeekWire in 2014.

This past September as entrepreneurs-in-residence at the New Museum’s incubator program, NEW INC after winning the GeekWire App of the Year award is malaysiancupid free in 2015, Lee and Hess relocated Siren to New York City.

Lee stated the business had been “pre-revenue,” but had a revenue that is three-pronged eyesight that included online-to-offline partnerships with neighborhood companies, compensated subscriptions, and “psychometric information analysis of aggregate user reactions.”

The application had 38,000 users, with an 80 % response price to initial communications, Lee noted. Siren had raised $960,000. Its just employees that are current the 2 co-founders, who’re both now back Seattle.

Here’s Lee’s blog post that is full

It’s with hefty hearts—and eyes to the future—that we ought to announce that Friday, April 7, 2017, Siren will likely to be shutting our “doors.”

Whilst it’s perhaps not uncommon for a startup to operate away from cash, just how we went away ended up being since unforeseen as it had been damaging. At the start of 2016, we closed our round with a lead investor whoever objective would be to help female-centric businesses and whom saw the possibility in Siren’s clear differentiation in a saturated market. Yet, around this writing, a calendar that is full later on, they’ve perhaps not finished their responsibility. Rather, we received little, unpredictable quantities, because of the other investors fearlessly stepping ahead. Through the commitment of the committed individuals we had been in a position to carry on development, nonetheless we’re able to never ever prepare beyond a couple of months, hindering development, milestones, and brand new capital opportunities.