What’s Grindr Into? Going Public!

While you’re racking up headless torsos and hidden profiles on your Grindr account, the dating app is going public. After 13 years of private ownership, the West Hollywood based company announced that it will now enter into a deal with the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Tiga Acquisition Corp (TAC) that values the company at $2.1 billion dollars.

Essentially, this means that the company’s privately owned stock will now be up for grabs in a public market, consequently allowing the company to raise capital for operations, further expansion, and to ensure that you still have access to your Grindr Xtra subscription. When TAC and Grindr’s powers combine, the company, which its CEO Jeff Bonforte calls, “the leading platform focused on the LGBTQ+ community for digital connection and engagement”, will exist as Grindr, Inc.

And while some readers may cheekily smirk at Grindr facilitating “digital connection and engagement” the stats are impressive. 

• The dating app brought in $147 million in revenue in 2021
• Has active profiles in over 190 countries 
• Amassed 11 million monthly active users worldwide, with over 723,000 of them using premium services
• And expanded its advocacy and philanthropic efforts through Grindr 4 Equality

That’s right. Some of you spend a little over an hour a day searching for the right top, bottom, vers, or side. With 80% of those 11 million monthly active users being under the age of 35, there’s room for targeted expansion towards Millennials and Gen Z. Especially when people spend more time on Grindr daily than they do on apps like Tinder, Bumble, or Scruff. Of course the internet had some interesting takes on the announcement. 

elon on his way to buy grindr pic.twitter.com/te50qqOktn

— R⋆ (@landoooe) May 10, 2022

SPAC me daddy

— Judah Silver (@jewduhsilver) May 9, 2022

the yassification of capitalism https://t.co/8jZsqpBK59

— EC (@i_am_cardi_a) May 9, 2022

I’m finally gonna become a stocks bro https://t.co/H5NMBtRsib

— “marlon” (@marls_barkley) May 9, 2022

I don’t know what’s wilder: Grindr being called a “dating” app or a $2.1B valuation https://t.co/VvkC6Rqf1X

— Ryan (@rydelfl) May 10, 2022

SPAC can host. https://t.co/8nPXACZP6a

— Chris Rovzar (@Rovzar) May 9, 2022

Although this isn’t the first rodeo where Grindr was actively sought after, this marks the actual completion of the deal. We’ll see what happens when the merger closes in the second half of 2022. Either way, looks like new efforts will be under way with your favorite gay dating app. You may need to dust off that profile.

me deleting grindr only to redownload it 3 days later pic.twitter.com/WohSXz8fbx

— w**mf (@laxmura) May 9, 2022