Can money buy love? Putting up 'dating bounty' to find a partner

Two men in US dangled rewards for whoever found them a match - one offered US$100,000

For most of Mr Mati Roy's life, dating was far down on his list of priorities. Although he half-heartedly tried dating apps, and would have welcomed a relationship if it developed naturally, pursuing love did not seem worth the effort.

In December 2021, Mr Roy put together an online dating bio, otherwise known as a "date-me doc", and encouraged people to share it online. He noted that he was 1.88m tall, didn't drink, smoke or do drugs, and leaned less interested in spending time together than typical couples would.

Children were important, so, to sweeten the pot, he offered US$2,000 (S$2,700) to whoever introduced him to the person he would end up legally co-parenting with. The money was an experiment, and the amount reflected a sum that might motivate people to get involved.

Mr Roy, now 33 and a project manager at OpenAI, called the reward a "dating bounty". One friend offered an additional US$1,000 with an easier requirement: It would go to whoever introduced Mr Roy to a person who brought him "a lot of joy" for at least 18 months. Another friend, Mr Anatoliy Zaslavskiy, who goes by Toli, added US$500 with the same 18-month condition, bringing the full bounty up to US$3,500.

Mr Zaslavskiy, now 31 and an engineer at Dropbox, liked the idea so much he decided to offer his own dating bounty: US$100,000 that would be paid out on a four-year vesting schedule.

"I really liked the vesting structure that start-ups have and I thought, 'If this works in the financial world, why can't it work in the dating world?"" said Mr Zaslavskiy, who chose the amount after analysing his spending and thinking through how much he wanted to invest in love.

After the first year of the relationship, the amateur matchmaker would be paid a lump sum of $25,000. Then the person would get monthly payments of roughly $2,000 until the full amount was paid out or the couple broke up.