Company gives couples $10,000 that they only have to pay back if they divorce (vid)

A casino for marriage, but are you ready to bank on your relationship

Swanluv, a Seattle startup, has a business model based on the fact that nearly 40-50% of married couples end up parting their ways. For this reason, the company pays for the couple to have a dream wedding… but there’s a string attached! If the couple divorce, they pay back the money with interest.

Couples get in touch with the company and they are profiled through an algorithm. They carefully study each applying couple’s relationshiop and select couples based on criteria (e.g. likelihood of divorce) before they offer the couples loans of up to $10,000.

The couples don’t have to return the money – ever – as long as they stay together. In the likelihood of divorce, the couple returns the original amount with interest. Strong relationships are assigned higher interest rates and that means that the more a couple stick together, the more they stand to lose if they split.

The business premise is the opposite of an insurance policy where you’re supposed to get paid when things go wrong. At SwanLuv, you are given money when the going is good and pay when things go wrong.