Consumer health & wellness · Relationship apps
Agapé
A subscription app that sends couples, friends and family one personalized question a day, then reveals both answers once each person responds. More than two million users, two peer reviewed studies from its own research team, and one federal securities filing that shows fourteen investors putting in about $1.8 million.
A hospital room and a question
Khadesha Okwudili was 23 when a heart disorder put her into cardiac arrest. She needed a defibrillator implanted and a nerve removed to keep her heart calm. Her boyfriend at the time, now her husband, stayed with her through it.
“My husband, my boyfriend at the time, he would visit me in the hospital and spend all day with me and he would stay the night with me and we had all these deep conversations about what our goals for the future were and what we’d hope we’d become individually and as a couple,” she told Spectrum News 1 Rochester in 2022.
“That inspired me to ask more meaningful questions of the people I loved, because I wasn’t sure how much time I would have left with them,” she told an investor interviewer, as recounted in a University of Rochester news story.
She pitched the idea to Ronald Rogge, a University of Rochester psychology professor who studies romantic relationships, and the two began writing questions together.
The problem it is aimed at
The University of Rochester frames the stakes plainly: half of US marriages are likely to fail by the time the spouses reach their 50s. Relationship enhancement programs have tried to change that for decades, from couples counseling to guided date nights. Rogge himself ran an earlier study, published in 2013, showing that couples who watched and discussed romantic movies together had lower divorce rates.
The trouble, according to the pilot study Rogge later co-authored, is reach. Facilitator-led programs are hard to scale, and self-directed programs tend to suffer from low adherence, meaning couples start and quit. Agapé’s bet is a daily automated prompt that takes a minute to answer and rewards engagement with points.
Founders
Rogge has spent close to three decades researching relationships and early marriage at the University of Rochester. He serves as Agapé’s Chief Research Officer and is a stockholder in Agapé Wellness Inc.
Okwudili studied epidemiology and neuroscience as an undergraduate at Rochester. After her health stabilized in 2019, she and Rogge began developing and testing question content with Jenna Macri, a Rochester psychology graduate now serving as senior research assistant. Okwudili is founder and CEO of Agapé Wellness Inc.
“In reflecting back on that period, I thought ‘why did it take almost dying for me to have these types of conversations?’” Okwudili said.
Timeline, with a gap in it
Independent accounts do not fully agree on when Agapé reached the public. Okwudili told Spectrum News 1 Rochester in 2022 that the app was out by February 2020, the same month she married. The University of Rochester’s own 2023 news story instead says the app “launched in early 2021 via the Google and Apple app stores.” Neither account is a public filing, and this review found nothing that resolves the difference.
What is not in dispute is that the app went viral on TikTok roughly a year after Okwudili says it launched. Spectrum News 1 Rochester reported “over 100,000 installs” overnight from a single video. The University of Rochester put the number at “160,000 plus.” Both describe the same event; the counts differ.
Agapé went through Y Combinator’s Summer 2021 batch, per Fundraising Fox. That year, Launch NY made a follow-on investment, and Agapé Wellness Inc. filed a federal Form D on July 19, 2021, disclosing a $2.07 million offering with $1.77 million already sold to 14 investors. In April 2023, Buffalo Business First reported Agapé was preparing a new app version and a business-focused product; this review could not obtain the full article. By November 2023, Rogge, Macri and Okwudili had published a peer-reviewed pilot study in the Journal of Family Psychology. A second paper analyzing the same dataset appeared in Behavioral Sciences in July 2026.
What is proven, and what is still claimed
| Evidence | What the record shows | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| Pilot study, 2023 | Rogge, Macri and Okwudili followed 405 couples for one month. 80% reported improved relationships, 70% reported better individual well-being, 93% found the app enjoyable, 74% found it easy to use. The study had no control group; the authors write that they cannot separate the app’s effect from expectancy, self-selection or simply repeated attention to the relationship. Rogge and Okwudili disclose they are stockholders in Agapé Wellness Inc., and the study ran under a conflict-of-interest plan with the university. | Public record |
| Network analysis, 2026 | Same 405-couple sample, published in Behavioral Sciences. Explores which of 16 self-reported relationship processes moved together; the authors again describe the findings as correlational, not causal, and again disclose the Agapé affiliation. | Public record |
| “97% of users that we’ve surveyed report Agapé positively affecting their relationships.” | Stated on the company’s Apple App Store listing and homepage. The company’s own published pilot study reports 80% saw improved relationships, a different figure from a different, smaller measure. | Differs from published study |
| “93% of couples see benefits” | Stated on the company’s own FAQ page, a third figure alongside the 97% claim used elsewhere on the same website and the 80% figure in the peer-reviewed study. | Differs from company’s own other claims |
| Not a couples therapy app (company disclaimer) | The company’s FAQ states Agapé is not therapy, is not focused on solving problems, and is fundamentally different from couples therapy. | Company-stated |
| FDA, clinical trial registry, federal grant records | None found for Agapé or Agapé Wellness Inc. | Not found |
| User count, 2 million-plus | Stated by the company and repeated in the University of Rochester’s own news story; no independent measurement found. | Company-stated |
| Google Play downloads and reviews | Listed by the Google Play Store as 500,000-plus downloads and about 9,500 reviews as of this review. | App store data |
Read plainly: the app has real usage and a real, published pilot study behind it, which is more than many consumer wellness apps can show. But the pilot has no control group, both papers were produced and co-authored by the company’s own founders under a disclosed conflict of interest, and the marketing claims on Agapé’s own site and app store listing do not match the percentages the company’s own peer-reviewed study reports.
What to watch
- A randomized, controlled follow-up. The 2023 pilot explicitly says it cannot separate the app’s effect from other explanations without one.
- Whether Agapé corrects the mismatch between its 97%, 93% and 80% figures across its own materials.
- Any new SEC Form D disclosing capital raised since July 2021.
- The business-focused product Buffalo Business First referenced in April 2023.
In their words
“That inspired me to ask more meaningful questions of the people I loved, because I wasn’t sure how much time I would have left with them.”
Khadesha Okwudili, founder and CEO, quoted by the University of Rochester · Independent
“In reflecting back on that period, I thought ‘why did it take almost dying for me to have these types of conversations?’”
Khadesha Okwudili, quoted by the University of Rochester, 2023 · Independent
“Overnight we got over 100,000 installs which was insane.”
Khadesha Okwudili, to Spectrum News 1 Rochester, 2022 · Independent
“Agapé is not really designed to help people fix problems in their relationship, but it does.”
Khadesha Okwudili, to Spectrum News 1 Rochester, 2022 · Independent
“It’s like starting your day with a love note from your partner.”
Khadesha Okwudili, to Spectrum News 1 Rochester, 2022 · Independent
“Our primary goal was to create an app that couples would intrinsically enjoy using, which would naturally grow in popularity, and thereby organically extend its reach.”
Ronald Rogge PhD, Chief Research Officer, quoted by the University of Rochester · Independent
“We listened to users. Essentially, it had to be fun and easy to use.”
Ronald Rogge PhD, quoted by the University of Rochester · Independent
“We found that regular app use really mattered. Couples who completed more daily prompts had stronger gains in their relationships.”
Ronald Rogge PhD, quoted by the University of Rochester, on the 2023 pilot findings · Independent
“No. Agapé isn’t therapy. Couples therapy is focused on solving a problem. Agapé is focused on creating a fun way to spark meaningful conversation.”
Agapé FAQ page · Company-stated
Related companies
Sources
- Public recordForm D, Agape Wellness Inc.
- Public recordEDGAR company search, Agape Wellness Inc., CIK 0001873449
- Public recordConnection at your fingertips: A first look at the Agapé app’s contributions to healthy relationships
- Public recordA Blueprint for Connection: Mapping Interconnected Patterns of Relationship Change in Couples Using the Agapé App
- IndependentIryss, Agape receive funding from Launch NY
- IndependentRochester woman changes the way couples communicate with viral app
- IndependentCan an app improve your romantic relationship?
- IndependentStartup Agape to launch new version of its app, grow business product
- IndependentAgapé company profile, YC S21, founders and investors
- CompanyAgapé company profile
- CompanyAgapé homepage
- CompanyAgapé FAQ page
- App store dataAgapé: Feel Close When Apart, App Store listing
- App store dataAgapé: Feel Close When Apart, Google Play listing
Profile researched and written by Healthcare Discovery. Last updated September 29, 2026.
