Move over, Bumble — there's a new dating app called Veggly, and it's helping connect vegans and vegetarians all over the world.
What is Veggly?
Veggly is a dating app designed specifically for people eating partly or fully plant-based diets. The app was conceptualized after a conversation between friends about the difficulty of dating meat-eaters because of their differences in diets and lifestyles.
The app is available in 181 countries, and as of 2021, had over 300,000 users who have matched with one another over one million times, according to Vegconomist.
The app's website claims that the company is "the world's no. 1 vegan dating app and helps you in finding your Veg-Love."
Why is plant-based dating getting popular?
As Veggly's website states, "Veganism is not a diet: it's a whole set of values that many vegans find a must have in a partner."
A blog post from the website estimates that 52% of vegans refuse to date meat-eaters, and one in eight wouldn't consider dating a vegetarian because they still eat some animal products. The post also claims that almost 40% of vegetarians wouldn't date meat-eaters.
Because plant-based diets are so important to many of the people who follow them, it makes sense that they would value finding romantic partners who share their lifestyles and worldviews.
The app doesn't have a shortage of users, either — in fact, it's seen a tenfold increase in usership between July 2019 and January 2021, jumping from 25,000 users to over 250,000.
"The growth we've seen is incredible!" Veggly founder Alex Felipelli told Vegconomist. "As veganism continues to surge in popularity across the world, so does the demand for herbivorous dating and relationships. So many of us want to be with someone who shares the same values and love for animals, so it's no surprise we have hit the 300,000 user mark so quickly."
Veggly's rising popularity follows an increasing growth in plant-based diets across the country. More and more people are choosing to eat less meat — largely for health reasons — with American plant-based food sales growing by 27% in 2020 alone.
How does Veggly work?
Like most dating apps, Veggly is free to use and has features including Likes, Super Likes, and Chats. The company also provides a premium tier (called the "Avocado Club") that removes ads and includes other exclusive features.
Veggly's website features a number of customer testimonials, including this one from Charity and Joe, users who connected from the Netherlands and the U.K., respectively:
"Our story started when both of us started to scroll through Veggly," the couple writes. "Both of us realized that the vegan dating pool is very small and we definitely didn't expect things to turn out this well."
"Finding someone who is vegan is great but it obviously takes much more to fall in love and to build a good relationship," the couple continues. "From the moment we started talking we realized how many things we have in common and how many shared interests we have."
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