Dating apps like Tinder and Woo may be trendy, but when it gets serious, it is India’s matrimonial websites that still rule the roost.

As a testament to that, one of India’s oldest matchmaking portals is all set to launch its initial public offering (IPO) on Indian bourses today (Sept. 11). The 17-year-old Matrimony.com, which operates websites such as BharatMatrimony.com, CommunityMatrimony.com, and EliteMatrimony.com, is looking to raise Rs500 crore ($78.3 million). These proceeds will be used to repay bank overdrafts, buy land to build a new office in Chennai, and help strengthen its presence in the $40 billion to 50 billion Indian wedding market (paywall).

Chennai-based Matrimony.com is the country’s largest matchmaking company by number of visitors, according to media analytics firm comScore. It caters to over 3.2 million users across its network of over 300 websites. This is the company’s second attempt at going public, after it scrapped its earlier plans in December 2016, citing unfavourable market conditions. Coming over a year after e-commerce firm Infibeam’s April 2016 outing, Matrimony.com’s IPO would be among the few by Indian internet firms.

And while dating apps are gaining traction, Matrimony.com’s founder and CEO Murugavel Janakiraman believes arranged marriages are still the norm, meaning there’s still room for his business to grow, especially as internet access expands.

“India is a strong matrimony market,” Janakiraman said, adding that new-age dating apps are likely to struggle to make substantial profits, given that it’s not easy to get women to use them. Matrimony.com, on the other hand, is among the handful of profitable Indian web ventures.

The serendipitous beginning

The idea for Matrimony.com emerged in the 1990s, when Janakiraman was working with AT&T-Lucent in the US. He had set up a community website to connect with other Indians, and noticed that it was the matrimony section that…