A sex party company founded by a friend of the Princess of Wales has launched an app described as the ‘AutoTrader’ of the online adult dating world.
Emma Sayle, founder of Killing Kittens, announced the new adult dating venture on Monday, as she declared the company’s Covid-era Government backing a success.
She said the new £25-a-month adult dating app, WeAreX, will create a space for adult conversations “without any kind of shame or guilt or judgement”.
Ms Sayle said: “It’s a whole ecosystem for your adult life. We’ve got a Rolls Royce offline brand, now we’re building AutoTrader.”
The so-called social dating platform features chat rooms where users can discuss their intimate relationships with one another.
Its launch was partly driven by traditional social media companies’ ambivalence towards the adult sector, Ms Sayle said.
“There are so many blockers when it comes to adult anything,” she said. “We’ve watched [adult] influencers and luxury brands all having the same problem; brands that they can’t push out on social media.
“So one of the things we’ve built into this platform is a big ad revenue platform.”
She hopes this will tempt brands such as Agent Provocateur to advertise on WeAreX.
Killing Kittens is aiming to secure up to £5m in a fundraising round that will start within weeks.
While the business has previously sought backing from retail investors through crowdfunding platforms, the planned fundraise is the first time it will target larger funds.
Killing Kittens is partly owned by the taxpayer after it took out a £170,000 Covid loan in 2020 from a Government scheme intended to protect valuable startups from the pandemic’s worst effects.
The loan’s terms and conditions contained a clause meaning it converts into an equity stake whenever recipients raise fresh investment.
Future Fund, the rescue scheme that supported Killing Kittens, was set up in May 2020 by Rishi Sunak through the state-backed British Business Bank. At its launch, the former Chancellor said the fund would “support firms across the UK to get through the pandemic by stimulating investment”.
As a result of the loan, the taxpayer owns 1.5pc of Killing Kittens after the business raised £1m last year, according to Companies House. The business is currently valued at £15m.
Founded in 2005, Killing Kittens carved out a niche by rolling “female-friendly” adult parties aimed at the middle class.
However, Ms Sayle raised eyebrows in 2015 when she organised an adult party in London’s first Islamic Sharia law-compliant hotel.
She also prompted anger from former Gogglebox stars Steph and Dom Parker in 2014 after renting their £3.5m Kent mansion, describing it as a “beautiful” venue for a 60-person masked orgy.
The name Killing Kittens is a reference to an apocryphal saying about the Almighty smiting defenceless cats to punish those engaged in the hedonistic pursuit of self-pleasure.
Robert Johnson is a UK-based business writer specializing in finance and entrepreneurship. With an eye for market trends and a keen interest in the corporate world, he offers readers valuable insights into business developments.
