Match Group Inc., whose dating-app portfolio includes brands like Hinge, Tinder and Match.com, is investing $100 million in Sniffies, a platform for queer men, paving the way for a possible acquisition.

Seattle-based Sniffies, which has about 3 million monthly active users worldwide, provides gay men a real-time map that often features intimate user-submitted images, an experience designed to help users find potential hookups. Sniffies is currently a web-only platform, having been removed from Apple Inc.’s App Store last year due to what Sniffies described as content restrictions.

The new investment represents a significant minority ownership stake and includes the option to acquire the remaining equity in the future, Match said in a statement on Monday. The company declined to comment on whether it plans to try again to get the platform onto the App Store or a competing marketplace. The news caused shares of Grindr Inc., the leading dating-app company for gay men, to fall 2.5% in extended trading. Match’s stock was little changed.

Match has expanded its portfolio of more than 20 apps through several acquisitions, sometimes starting off with an investment, as it’s doing with Sniffies. In 2017, the dating conglomerate invested in Hinge before buying it a year later. Last year it purchased the HER app for queer dating. In late 2023 Match acquired Salams, a dating app for Muslims, and it maintains additional apps targeted at Christian, Black, Latino and Asian daters, respectively.

As part of the investment, Match told Bloomberg it is winding down its existing Archer app, which it launched in 2023 to serve queer men, and that it will focus instead on supporting Sniffies. The dating startup will continue to operate independently under founder and Chief Executive Officer Blake Gallagher.

In a LinkedIn post reviewed by Bloomberg, Gallagher said the move will allow the company to “move faster on the things our users have been asking for,” including stronger trust and safety, expansive network growth and continued product improvements.

Match told Bloomberg that is sees queer men as a growing customer segment for the online dating industry. Sniffies is the number two player in that space behind Grindr, according to Match.

Sniffies is already generating revenue and is profitable, which reinforces the product and the demand, according to a Match spokesperson. The startup’s user base reflects a demographic that often uses multiple dating platforms and stays on apps for longer periods of time, according to Match’s internal research.

Kelly writes for Bloomberg.

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