The founder of a website that pairs wealthy "Sugar Daddies" with young, attractive "Sugar Babies" in need of some financial assistance says he's not a pimp and his website isn't promoting prostitution -- in fact it’s more akin to a Christian dating site than an escort service.

In fact, Brandon Wade, the founder of SeekingArrangement.com, says prostitution is strictly forbidden on the website. Instead, he told CTV's Canada AM, the goal is to "match people with money, obviously successful people, who are willing to spoil and pamper, with those who want to be spoiled and pampered."

"Just because money is somehow exchanged there because he's paying for dinner or buying gifts or paying for travel or even helping with college, it doesn't necessarily mean it's an escort service. It's actually very, very different. He or she is actually a wealthy boyfriend or girlfriend, that's all it is," Wade said.

Wade admits the Sugar Daddies or Sugar Mommies have an expectation of getting something in return for their generosity, but what that entails depends entirely on the Sugar Baby. It could be companionship, or even business contacts or networking opportunities. And if sex is exchanged, that's ok too, he said.

"This is a dating site. On a Christian dating site or any normal dating site, isn't the goal to match two people and hopefully there's some romantic connection, and a sexual relationship can occur?" Wade asked.

He added: “We’re talking about adults here, so at the end of the day people do what they want.”

The Las Vegas-based website's business model seems to be working. SeekingArrangement.com claims to have a membership of more than two million -- half of whom have apparently signed up with a university or college email address. Last year 183 students from Toronto's Ryerson University signed up.

According to Wade, Sugar Daddies can range from billionaires to those with only $1,000 or $2,000 per month in disposable income with which to pamper their Sugar Baby.

Chanel Kanku, a recent graduate from York University and an admitted Sugar Baby, says she used the site purely for networking purposes in hopes of advancing her acting career and opening doors in the field of law, which she hopes to pursue -- not as a means of trading sex for money.

She said she wasn't initially interested in the site at all, but a friend signed her up and when messages started arriving in her inbox -- some from casting directors -- she began to pay attention.

"I saw that I had the opportunity to meet successful people. You create a profile, you definitely set out what you want and what you're looking for, and I made sure my caption said 'networking,' and I starting meeting people," she told Canada AM.

Kanku said she went on a number of dates through the site, and eventually hooked up with a wealthy man whom she dated for about six months. In that time she estimates she received about $3,000 per month from her beau.

Her goal, she said, was to "surround myself with rich and successful people because rich people don't come to the poor -- you have to go to them."