Grindr has sold a major stake to Chinese gaming corporation Beijing Kunlun Tech. (Photo : YouTube)
Gay social platform Grindr has sold a major stake to Chinese gaming corporation Beijing Kunlun Tech, in a transaction worth $93 million.
The deal brings the valuation of Grindr, a 6-year-old startup, to $155 million, and it's the first time the company has had outside investment.
A predecessor to the renowned apps such as Tinder, Grindr utilizes a smartphone's GPS to match men within a specific radius from each other, according to CNET.
Zhou Yahui, the founder of Beijing Kunlun, became one of China's latest tech billionaires after his corporation listed on the Shenzen Stock Exchange in 2015.
The new transaction comes at a time when gay rights in China are a very contested topic and millions globally are still stigmatized by a more conservative society, which only forced homosexuality to be removed from the national list of mental disorders in 2001. The contention has resulted into services such as Blued, mostly referred to as Grindr of China, which try to use the Internet to get around archaic laws.
While it is unclear whether Grindr will be entering China, Carter McJunkin, the CEO of Grindr, told the New York Times that the two firms have agreed that the company's original operating structure and team would remain largely intact, implying that radical changes to the app following the deal are unlikely.
App founder Joel Simkhai said in a blog post, "We have taken this investment in our company to accelerate our growth, to allow us to expand our services for you, and to continue to ensure that we make Grindr the number one app and brand for our millions of users."
