Data Privacy and Harassment Could Spoil Grindr's Wall Street Romance

PROTOCOL - Introduced in 2009, Grindr pioneered the use of then-new iPhone location features to show nearby users ready to chat or go further. On May 9, Grindr announced it planned to go public through a SPAC deal that would value the company at $2.1B, almost 10 times what it sold for four years ago. If shareholders approve the merger, Grindr will finally be a public company. Grindr primarily makes money off ads, with some revenue from user subscriptions for premium features. ~94% of Grindr's 11M monthly active users worldwide use it for free, according to an investor presentation. The company is promising investors that there's $14 trillion to be made serving the LGBTQ+ community. Grindr had revenue of $104.5M in 2020, growing ~40% to $145.8M in 2021. Grindr lost $13.1M in 2020 and made $5.1M last year. Grindr has been criticized for weak privacy protections. It also has comparatively sparse resources devoted to moderating its 11M monthly active users: According to the company, it has 75 moderators contracted through the company PartnerHero. Grindr recently partnered with Spectrum Labs, an AI company, to help scale its content moderation.