Huggle launch aims to help people find friends safely online

A new platonic social-networking app aims to make meeting online safer for women.

Huggle, which launched last week, allows users who have visited the same places to connect with one another.

Co-founders Valerie Stark and Stina Sanders say it will offer a more secure forum for people to interact.

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"We wanted an app that could connect you to like-minded people at the places you love to go," says Stark. "We felt places in common was a better ice-breaker than appearance matching."

Huggle also aims to address problems women face using dating apps.

A slew of websites, books and blogs, such as the Instagram accounts tindernightmares and ByeFelipe, have emerged in recent months detailing the unwanted contact, obscenities and abuse received by millions of women online every day, The Guardian says.

In March, Judge Gregory Dickinson raised serious concerns about the safety of dating websites after a man was convicted of raping or assaulting seven women he met through Match.

Stark and Sanders say that they were motivated to create Huggle after being to feel uncomfortable on social apps themselves.

"If I wasn't receiving an inappropriate message, I was meeting someone who I had nothing in common with," Sanders says. "There was a clear gap in the market for safety."

Huggle is also part of a growing trend for platonic meeting, joining the likes of Bumble, Wiith and Hey! Vina helping people look for friends rather future partners online.

Entrepreneur Andrey Andreev, who co-founded the multi-billion-dollar social network Badoo, is one of Huggle's early investors.

He described the app as "new and different" and told TheWeek.co.uk he invested in it because it is "a unique idea".

In return, Sanders says Andreev's investment represents a vote of confidence in platonic social networking.