Gay-dating app Grindr said late Monday it has agreed to merge with a so-called blank-check company in a deal that values the combined company, to be called Grindr Inc., at $2.1 billion. The business combination with special purpose acquisition company Tiga Acquisition Corp. TINV, would raise about $384 million, Grindr said. Its business is a “highly profitable business in early innings of monetization journey,” with 2021 revenue at $147 million, up 30% from 2020, and 10.8 million monthly active users in 2021, who spend on average 61 minutes on the app a day, Grindr said. “Grindr is well positioned to be a public company and will continue to expand the ways it serves the LGBTQ+ community,” Chief Executive Jeff Bonforte said in a statement. The company is in discussions with an unnamed potential new CEO “who would bring a depth and breadth of experience across technology, finance, and management, including time spent in an executive leadership role at a public company,” with Bonforte continuing to serve as as CEO until the new person is able to join, at which point Bonforte will transition to an advisory role, the company said. U.S. national-security officials ordered Grindr’s Chinese owner to sell the app in 2019 amid fears that it’d share information about its users with the Chinese government. Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Grindr user data has been available for purchase since at least 2017. Historical data is still possibly obtainable, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. Grindr told the newspaper that it cut off the flow of location data to any ad networks two years ago.
