Justin McLeod speaks in the course of the Quick Firm Innovation Pageant 2025 in New York, Sept. 18, 2025.
Eugene Gologursky | Getty Photographs
Hinge founder Justin McLeod is stepping down as CEO of the courting app to launch a courting service powered by synthetic intelligence.
McLeod shall be changed by Jackie Jantos, the courting app’s president and chief advertising officer, Hinge guardian firm Match Group introduced on Tuesday.
“The corporate’s momentum, together with being on observe to achieve $1 billion in income by 2027, provides me full confidence in the place Hinge is headed,” McLeod mentioned in an announcement. He created the courting app in 2011.
McLeod will stay as an advisor to Hinge by means of March. Overtone, his new enterprise, will use AI and voice instruments to “assist folks join in a extra considerate and private method,” in keeping with the announcement.
Together with a devoted staff, McLeod spent a lot of this 12 months creating the startup with assist from Match Group, which mentioned it plans to guide Overtone’s preliminary funding spherical in early 2026.
Match Group, which additionally owns Tinder and varied different courting apps, will maintain a major possession place in Overtone. Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff will be a part of Overtone’s board.
“We’re proud to have incubated Overtone inside Hinge and to now lead its funding spherical as he builds his subsequent enterprise,” Rascoff mentioned in an announcement.
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