Made in Chelsea’s Ollie Locke launching gay dating app to find love
The reality star has teamed up with Bumble to create Chappy, which will launch in early 2017
MADE In Chelsea’s Ollie Locke is launching a gay dating app after failing to strike up a romance of his own.
The reality star is working with his friend and business partner Jack Rogers to make Chappy – which they have teamed up with mainstream dating app Bumble to create.
The website for the app explains: "Chappy is a new chapter in gay dating. Bored of the stigma associated with gay dating, co-founders Ollie Locke & Jack Rogers decided it was time to shake things up.
"At Chappy, we want to provide gay men with a safe, responsible and welcoming space for connecting and dating.
“Our Chappy community allows gay men to find something on their terms, in a way that makes them feel respected and confident.
"We're part romance, part rendez-vous, but all gentleman."
The app will allow users to choose what they’re looking for at the time by using a sliding scale to match users with compatible men looking for the same thing.
Although it won’t launch until early 2017, the developers are already encouraging
Ollie, 29, came out as bisexual on the first series of the E4 show in 2011 before coming out as gay in July this year.
He told The Sun at the time: "It's the first time the viewers have seen me as gay instead of bi. I do say the words 'I'm a gay man.'
"I lived with a woman last year when I was off camera and we had two dogs together. Then when we broke up in December, I thought, 'That's it now, I think I'm gay.'"
Speaking about the app, Bumble’s founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe said: “Bumble has made great strides for women in the dating space and we believe Chappy will do the same for gay men – it’s everything we could wish for in a partner, we’re very proud to be supporting its debut.”
Original cast member Ollie left the show in 2013 before re-joining last year, with his own dating life well-documented on the show.
He has had notable relationships with Topshop heiress Chloe Green and former cast members Gabriella Ellis and Ashley James but has struggled to find love with a man on the show.
As well as Made in Chelsea, he has competed on Celebrity Big Brother and Bear Grylls' Celebrity Island.
Describing his new app in his own words, Ollie explained: “Chappy represents the future of gay dating and we’re thrilled to have an investor and partner as well versed in the market as Whitney and Bumble.
“In addition to fully understanding our ethos and mission to normalise gay dating, Bumble also knows the importance of an app fully recognising the needs of the user.
“We’re very proud to be working with Bumble.”