Grindr’s Owners May Take It Private After a Financial Squeeze

Grindr’s majority owners are reportedly looking to take the LGBTQ+ dating app private following a stock decline that triggered a personal financial crunch, according to Semafor.

The owners in question are Raymond Zage, a former hedge fund manager and U.S. expat now based in Singapore, and James Lu, a Chinese-American entrepreneur and former Amazon and Baidu executive. Together, they led the 2020 acquisition of Grindr from Chinese ownership for over $600 million, and subsequently took the app public in 2022 through a blank-check merger.

Sources indicate that Zage and Lu, who collectively control more than 60% of Grindr, pledged nearly all their shares as collateral for personal loans from a unit of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek. After Grindr’s stock began sliding at the end of September, those loans became undercollateralized—worth less than the debt—prompting the Temasek unit to seize and sell some of the shares last week.

Grindr’s stock decline seems disconnected mainly from business fundamentals. Profits reportedly rose 25% in the second quarter, although the company has experienced some executive turnover, and investors have expressed concern over narrowing margins.

Zage and Lu are now reportedly in talks with Fortress Investment Group—majority owned by Mubadala Investment Company, which is owned by the government of Abu Dhabi—to secure financing for a buyout at roughly $15 per share, valuing Grindr at around $3 billion. Shares jumped following the report.