LGBTQ+ Dating App Grindr Goes Public with Two Billion Valuation

Grindr, the dating app for the LGBTQ+ community, has 10.8 million monthly users worldwide. In 2009, the company started as a start-up – now it goes public with a valuation of $ 2.1 billion.

The dating platform for gays, Grindr, wants to go public. The US company announced on Monday that it has teamed up with a special acquisition company for this purpose. The company is valued at $ 2.1 billion (two billion euros) and is expected to raise $ 384 million from the IPO. With the money, Grindr wants to “further expand the opportunities it offers the LGBTQ+ community,” said company CEO Jeff Bonforte.

The startup, founded in 2009, is profitable according to its own statements. It describes itself as “the world’s largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans and queer people”. Grindr said it had an average of 10.8 million monthly users last year, most of whom are 35 years old or younger.

The merger of Grindr with a so-called Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) is therefore still subject to regulatory approval and is expected to be completed in the second half of this year. SPACs are founded to collect money from investors and then to bring a previously unknown company to the stock market. How SPACs work, read here.