Grindr to Go Public with $2.1 Billion Valuation and Merge With Tiga

Dating app Grindr is going public through a blank check firm or Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) called Tiga.

Grindr is Going Public

According to Bloomberg, Grindr and Tiga are merging to form a combined entity with a $2.1 billion valuation, which will give the dating app access to $384 million in funds to be used for its debt payments.

The funds will also be used to support growth areas and to help them launch new endeavors.

Officer Gary Hsueh, the Grindr Chief Financial Officer, said that the company had been approached by several SPACs in the past. It ultimately chose the SPAC route instead of a traditional IPO because it makes more sense.

Bloomberg noted that SPACs leveled up over the past couple of years after the pandemic, making traditional IPOs much riskier than usual.

They offer better returns and protections, and they could provide an easier route to becoming a public company.

But the market has become oversaturated, and according to CNBC, the SPAC bubble is bursting.

At the moment, Grindr's revenue mostly comes from subscriptions though it. It remains to be seen if a recent report that sold user data would affect its future earnings.

The Wall Street Journal stated that Grindr location data was for sale for at least three years, putting the privacy of its users at risk.

Grindr Location Data

According to Engadget, the precise Grindr user location data was collected from the online ad network MoPub and put on sale through UberMedia in 2017.

The dating app curbed the practice when the limited location data collection was in early 2020, but there is a possibility that legacy information might still be available.

A former senior employee told The Wall Street Journal that Grinder initially did not believe sharing location data with marketers posed privacy issues.

Ad executives reportedly told Grindr that real-time bidding, or displaying ads based on a user's immediate location, was transforming the industry.

The dating app said in a statement that its 2020 policy change meant it shared fewer data with advertisers than any of the big tech platforms and most dating app rivals. But it didn't address historical info.

Twitter told UberMedia was held to MoPub's data use restrictions at the time, while UberMedia's current owner Near said "thousands of entities" have access to data shared in the real-time bidding system. It challenged concerns that location data without direct personal information could help trace the users.

However, Near's claims are not necessarily true. The Pill said that it used sold Grindr data to track the usage and oust a senior church official.

There are also fears that countries with anti-LGBTQ laws could use Grindr locations to arrest the app's users. Grindr restricted the location features during the Beijing Winter Olympics precisely to prevent this type of abuse with athletes.

The United States forced Grindr's Chinese owner Kunlun to sell the company by mid-2020, in part over worries China's government might misuse the personal information of American citizens.

Grindr's own practices were also under scrutiny at the time. It shared HIV statuses with app optimization firms, and Kunlun's Chinese engineers had access to a database of sensitive information for months.

Related Article: The Dangers Of Online Dating: Apps Tinder And Grindr Linked To More Crimes Than Ever

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Written by Sophie Webster