Dating app conglomerate Match Group announced yesterday it’s making a $100 million investment in Sniffies, a gay cruising app that makes “getting laid as a gay man almost too easy,” according to Mashable’s review.
The investment is a minority stake in the company and includes the option to acquire the remaining equity in the future, according to a press release shared with Mashable. Founder and CEO of Sniffies, Blake Gallagher, shared on LinkedIn that it will remain led by him and independently operated.
“The product, the tone, and the community will continue to be shaped by the people who use it,” Gallagher continued, saying the app can now move faster to make improvements users are asking for while building it by being “grounded in real-world connection, with our community leading the way.”
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In the press release, Gallagher stated that with Match Group’s support, the Sniffies team can improve the product and expand their network while investing in Trust and Safety (a growing issue on dating apps) and giving users what they want.
Sniffies has around three million monthly active users globally, according to the press release, and 20 million messages sent daily. And Sniffies’ iOS app only launched last year, only to be pulled from the App Store shortly after.
The investment comes around a year after Match Group acquired sapphic dating app HER, which drew mixed reactions from users. The same is true for this announcement, with a Reddit thread asking, “Are we cooked?“, and most comments answering in the affirmative. But how Sniffies changes with this investment is yet to be seen.
