GrindrGrindr CEO and founder Joel SimkhaiGrindr, the location-based dating app for gay men, has hired banking firm Raine Group LLC to help find a buyer, Bloomberg reported Friday.
Sources tell Bloomberg that "the sale process is early and no deal is assured." The same sources also don't know what Grindr's valuation could be in a sale.
Joel Simkhai has bootstrapped Grindr since its 2009 founding. Grindr's location-based service charges users about $12 a month.
Grindr claims to be the biggest male mobile social network in the world, with more than 5 million users in 192 countries. In Grindr's pitch documents, users are described as "affluent, tech-savvy men" who earn above the average household income, and have future travel plans, making them lucrative advertising targets.
In August, a security glitch left Grindr users' locations vulnerable to third parties. Since then, Grindr has disabled distance display, a feature that shows how close you are to a potential match.
If Grindr is looking to sell, one potential buyer could be IAC (InterActiveCorp), which owns the majority of the US online dating market through ownership in platforms like Tinder, OKCupid, and Match.com.