Chapter 2 Dating Ltd, the Manchester-based specialist dating business behind Chapter2Dating.app, WidowsFire.dating and SoberLove.app, has recorded three consecutive months of record revenue, four years after launch, with July its strongest month to date and 11.2% ahead of the previous record.
The latest results mean that the business has reached break-even for the first time, with revenues now covering member acquisition and day-to-day operating costs, while its three dating platforms have grown to more than 20,000 members across the UK, USA, Canada and Australia, with around half of the group’s audience now in the US.
The company’s record revenues come despite the fact that it is currently spending spending over 50% less on marketing than at the same point last year, reflecting significantly improved efficiency as the business scales.
Chapter 2 was founded by entrepreneur and Don’t Panic Projects founder Nicky Wake (right) in 2022 with Chapter2Dating.app, which drew on her personal experience of reentering the world of dating as a widow following the tragic loss of her husband Andy Wake in 2020. The app is designed to support widows and widowers in navigating the next chapter of their lives. The business has since expanded with the launch of WidowsFire.dating – a somewhat more casual iteration of the widow/er dating experience – and SoberLove.app, which is probably self-explanatory, but modifies the dating app experience for those in recovery from addiction.
In September 2025, the company also acquired M14, the Dragons’ Den-featured white-label dating and social app platform it had been using since launch in 2022, meaning Chapter 2 brought the back-end technology behind its own dating apps in-house.
Chapter 2 Dating Ltd has raised £450,000 in investment to date and currently has a further £50,000 of EIS-approved investment available, which it expects to close by the end of November.
Intriguingly, Chapter 2 notes that several investors who have backed the business are themselves widowed and have used the platforms, including one unnamed US investor who is now engaged to a woman he met through Chapter2Dating.app.
Founder and CEO Wake said, “We’re incredibly proud of where the business is today. Building a dating business from scratch in such a competitive industry is not easy, so to reach this point and know that we have created something that is both commercially sustainable and genuinely valued by our members feels like a huge achievement.
“We’ve always believed there is room in the dating market for platforms that really understand the people they are built for. We’re not trying to be everything to everyone, our strength is knowing our communities, listening to them and creating places where people feel understood and comfortable making connections.
“There is a huge amount more we want to do with Chapter 2 Dating Ltd. We have proven the model, we have a growing international audience and we believe there is enormous
potential to take what we have built much further. We’re ambitious about the future, including how we can use new technology in ways that genuinely benefit our communities.”
The company is now preparing for further international growth and is developing a new AI product, with further details to be announced “soon.”
