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Ditto AI

Ditto AI

AI-powered college student matchmaking service

Software Engineer Intern

Summer 2026Posted on 2/10/2026
$35 - $80/hr
Internship
Berkeley, CA, USA
In Person

Remote work is acceptable only for exceptional candidates; onsite at Berkeley, CA preferred.

About the job

Requirements
  • 2–4+ personal projects or intern experiences
  • Strong programming foundations (data structures, algorithms, testing, profiling)
  • TypeScript proficiency for product code, tools, services
  • Python proficiency for model operations, evaluation, data
  • Experience building with multiple large language model providers and tool-calling/function-calling; comfortable swapping models and orchestrating fallbacks
  • Hands-on with Retrieval-Augmented Generation and context engineering for reliability and cost/latency trade-offs
  • Practical prompt engineering and prompt libraries; ability to reason about failure modes and systematically improve prompts/policies
  • Ability to define metrics with KPIs (accuracy, latency, cost, safety), run A/B tests, and loop in human feedback for quality
  • Comfortable with MongoDB in production; familiarity with vector databases (e.g., pgvector/Redis/Pinecone/Weaviate) is a plus
  • Builder’s mindset: thrives with ambiguity, ships quickly, debugs systematically, and focuses on user experience
  • Location: Berkeley, CA onsite preferred; remote acceptable for exceptional candidates
Responsibilities
  • Ship agentic matchmaking from research to production—own the end-to-end loop (retrieval, reasoning, tool use, safety) and drive measurable accuracy improvements
  • Build a prompt & model evaluation harness (offline + online) to compare prompts/models/policies, support A/B testing, and enable fast iteration
  • Optimize AI chat systems for lower latency, higher perceived “human-likeness,” and more consistent outcomes across providers
  • Design and maintain context engineering pipelines (RAG, memory, summarization, compression, grounding) for conversations and matchmaking
  • Stand up observability for agents (traces, costs, failures, hallucinations, guardrails) and create dashboards that guide product decisions
  • Collaborate daily with the cofounders and product to translate user problems into agent behaviors, experiments, and shipped features
  • Write clear, maintainable code; create small internal tools and SDKs other engineers (and AIs) will use
Desired Qualifications
  • MCP (Model Context Protocol)
  • agent frameworks (LangGraph/CrewAI/Assistants)
  • LLM observability/evals (e.g., Langfuse/Promptfoo/Ragas/TruLens)
  • retrieval & embeddings know-how
  • safety/guardrails/red-teaming

About the company

Ditto AI is an AI-powered dating service for college students that creates ready-to-go, in-person dates without swiping or chatting. It analyzes detailed user profiles (preferences, personality, values) and runs simulations using advanced language models and a system of specialist AI agents (analysis, matchmaking, scheduling) to select highly compatible matches. Once a match is found, it sends a full date plan with time, place, and a rationale for the pairing via iMessage, and it handles scheduling and conversation tips. The platform is campus-focused, launching on California campuses with verified students, and differentiates itself by offering swipe-free, AI-driven matchmaking that delivers actionable date plans directly to users. Its goal is to simplify romantic connections for college students by providing ready-made, well-muited date experiences.

Company Size

51-200

Company Stage

Seed

Total Funding

$9.2M

Headquarters

Berkeley, California

Founded

1997

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Ditto reported 181,604+ students and 100+ schools joined as of September 6, 2026.
  • The company raised $9.2 million on February 3, 2026, led by Peak XV.
  • More than 12,000 dates and 92% repeat-interest signal strong user satisfaction and retention.

What critics are saying

  • College-only and 18-plus rules cap TAM and force constant campus-by-campus expansion.
  • Apple Messages policy changes can block iMessage automation and crush acquisition by 2027.
  • Match quality remains fragile; 20% date conversion leaves most matches unfulfilled.

What makes Ditto AI unique

  • Ditto replaces swiping with iMessage-delivered, AI-curated in-person dates, not chat loops.
  • Verified 18-plus college-only matching on 100+ schools creates a campus-native network moat.
  • Frontier LLM agents handle analysis, matchmaking, and scheduling end-to-end, reducing user friction.

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TechCrunch
Aug 6th, 2026
Gen Z dating app Ditto raises $9.2M to replace swiping with AI matchmaking

Two UC Berkeley dropouts have launched Ditto, an AI-powered dating service that ditches swiping in favour of automated matchmaking for Gen Z college students. Co-founders Allen Wang and Eric Liu built the platform to help peers connect without endless swiping and small talk. Users sign up via iMessage and interact with an AI chatbot that asks about personality, interests and dating preferences. The algorithm matches people based on deeper personality traits rather than surface-level hobbies. Every Wednesday at 7pm, Ditto sends users their weekly match along with a time and location for the date. The service has 150,000 signups, with 20% of matches resulting in actual dates. Ditto recently raised $9.2 million in seed funding from investors including Gradient, Peak XV and Scribble, with backing from Duolingo co-founder Severin Hacker.

IT Brief US
Feb 3rd, 2026
Ditto raises USD $9.2m for AI iMessage dating push

Campus dating start-up Ditto lands USD 9.2 million to grow its AI-powered iMessage matchmaking service for US college students.

Business Insider
Feb 3rd, 2026
This startup uses AI to get you on a date - fast. Read the pitch deck it used to raise $9.2 million.

This startup uses AI to get you on a date - fast. Read the pitch deck it used to raise $9.2 million. * Meet Ditto: an AI dating matchmaking service for college students. * Founded by UC Berkeley dropouts, Ditto launched in 2025 and recently raised $9.2 million. * Ditto exclusively shared with Business Insider the pitch deck it used to woo investors. Allen Wang and Eric Liu, two UC Berkeley dropouts, think they can help college students find love using AI. Their dating startup, Ditto, leverages AI to match people based on the data users input into the service. It then plans the date for them. "We're bringing people back to in-real-life interactions," Wang, 23, told Business Insider. After users make a profile, they directly message Ditto's AI chatbot via text - no app required - about their type and dating preferences. On Wednesdays, users get a text about a potential match. After each date, Ditto follows up for feedback and uses that information as additional data for future matches. "People are tired of being trapped behind the apps," Wang said. Ditto will announce on Tuesday that it has raised $9.2 million in seed funding, led by venture capital firm Peak XV, with participation from firms like Alumni Ventures, Gradient, and Scribble Ventures. The seed funding will primarily be spent on hiring talent across AI and growth, Wang said, as well as toward Ditto's marketing. The company has 10 staffers and has raised a total of $9.5 million to date. Ditto launched its product in early 2025. Ditto isn't the only AI dating app gaining momentum right now. Other startups like Sitch, Known, and Amata have raised millions for similar products that pitch AI-powered matchmaking as the new alternative to swiping through profiles. Dating app mainstays like Tinder and Bumble, meanwhile, are also testing the AI waters to reignite user interest. Ditto's AI tries to determine whether two people would be a good match by using profile details, such as users' hobbies or interests, to simulate a date, Wang said. "Would you guys have a good conversation? Do you guys have matched humor level? Do you guys have similar vibes and values?" Wang said. Finding love as a college student. The dating startup world has a history of targeting college students as early users. For instance, Tinder's early success came in part from its marketing on college campuses. "College kids are very adaptive to new technology," Wang said. The app now has about 42,000 people signed up across several college campuses in California. With its recent funding, Ditto plans to expand to more college campuses. One tactic that helps get college-aged users on board: parties. Ditto plans to host several yacht parties across the US, beginning with a Valentine's Day party in Los Angeles (it hosted its first yacht party this summer). At the parties, 100 college students will sign up for Ditto and then get paired into 50 couples. "We are prioritizing growth over monetization," Wang said, adding that the startup is interviewing users about what price they'd be willing to pay for dates from the service. Read the 12-page pitch deck Ditto used to raise $9.2 million: Ditto introduces itself as an 'AI social agent' The deck kicks off with a little dating app history. Dating apps have a "paradigm shift every decade," the slide says. In the 1990s and 2000s, online dating websites emerged. Then in the 2010s, mobile dating apps took over. Ditto pitched investors that AI is the next frontier. Ditto explains AI agents and what it says gen Z wants. The slide describes Ditto as an AI social agent network where "AI turns profiles into live agents that can interact on their own." "Gen Z is tired of swiping and chatting online," the slide says. "They prefer 'coffee chat vibe check' style social: IRL, genuine, light." Ditto says dating apps like Tinder are 'primitive' The slide also incorporates some old-school video game aesthetics, inspired by Super Mario Bros. It says that AI agents setting up dates 'is the future' Then, the deck explains how Ditto works. On a website, users fill out a questionnaire and tell Ditto about their "type." Then, Ditto will start texting users directly. Ditto texts a date invite after finding a match. The text includes a collage of the user's photos. Then, Ditto sets up a date and follows up for feedback. Ditto says AI 'connects the hidden dots' AI helps Ditto "understand the intrinsic and deeper values" about why two people could be a good match, Wang told Business Insider. Ditto pitches vibe-based matchmaking. It includes a flow chart explaining how its agentic system works. Ditto takes user data and feeds it into an analysis agent, which performs image analysis, attractiveness analysis, and profile tagging. Then, in the "pre-date reasoning" phase, a matchmaking agent does a "vibe check" and "hobby match" before running a "date simulation." The date simulation agent then runs through things like "first impression" or "conversation flow" before presenting a user with a match. Ditto's deck concludes with a collage of testimonials from college students. Read next. Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know.

Tech.eu
Feb 11th, 2022
UK AI startup Ditto raises £4 million for its software advisor bots

AI company Ditto has raised £4 million from IP Group, which builds intellectual property-based…

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