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Eight the Portuguese dating appis raising a 3M seed round

Eight, a Portuguese video-first dating app, is raising a €3 million seed round and has so far closed €256,600 of that target. The app is built on a simple premise: no photo profiles, no weeks of text exchange, and no passive swiping.

Every night between 8 and 9pm, human-verified users log in, browse 30-second video introductions from other members, and unlock 8-minute live video calls with anyone they match with.

Chat is only enabled after both sides say yes to a call, a deliberate inversion of the text-first model that dominates the dating app market.

The app is currently live in Portugal and the UK, and the founders plan to use the seed round to enter Eastern Europe and the United States. CEO Afonso Simão is a serial entrepreneur who previously founded Miofar, a fitness brand he grew to more than $1.2 million in revenue and 60,000 fulfilled orders before exiting.

The other co-founder, Moreira da Cruz, brings sales and growth experience including an MBA in digital marketing and a background as a top enterprise account executive at a SaaS company.

Eight's positioning is explicitly anti-engagement: the founders say they want users to get off the app and into a real conversation as quickly as possible, and that this philosophy shaped every product decision.

That means no infinite scroll, no dopamine-loop notification design, no streak mechanics. The app operates on a strict one-hour-per-night window, during which the entire active user base is online simultaneously, a structural choice that creates scarcity and shared context rather than the asynchronous drip of conventional dating apps.

Human verification is a core feature, designed to address what the founders identify as two of the existing market's most damaging problems: fake profiles and ghosting.

The global dating app market was valued at $6.18 billion in 2024 and serves an estimated 364 million users worldwide. Eight enters a market that has seen significant venture attention, but is also facing growing user fatigue with the dominant swipe-and-text model.

Several apps have experimented with video features, but Eight's architecture makes video the only interaction mode from the first moment of contact.

Story by Ana-Maria Stanciuc

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I am the Editor in Chief for TNW, covering technology not as a parade of launches and valuations, but as a system of influence, persuasion, (show all) I am the Editor in Chief for TNW, covering technology not as a parade of launches and valuations, but as a system of influence, persuasion, and change. I write about startups, venture capital, digital policy, and Europe ecosystem, with an eye on the larger story beneath them: who gets to build the future, who profits from it, and how Europe is learning to speak in a louder voice of its own. Before moving into senior editorial leadership, I've built my career for over +10 years across journalism, storytelling, content strategy, SEO, and digital publishing, with experience in SaaS, hospitality, art, and culture.