Sniffies, a Seattle-based meetup platform for gay, bisexual and sexually curious men, has landed a $100 million investment from Match Group. The deal gives Match a significant minority ownership stake in the Grindr competitor, along with an option to acquire the company outright.
Match Group owns a suite of dating apps including Tinder, Hinge, Match and OKCupid. Its CEO is Spencer Rascoff, a serial entrepreneur who co-founded Zillow and later led the Seattle real estate giant, and who also co-founded the second-home marketplace Pacaso.
Blake Gallagher launched Sniffies more than eight years ago and serves as CEO. On LinkedIn, he describes the app as a “no-holds-barred, sex-positive platform that enables and encourages its users to genuinely explore their sexuality, fantasies, and kinks both virtually and physically.”
The platform claims roughly 3 million monthly active users worldwide and more than 20 million messages exchanged daily. It has 65 employees.
The investment — which is the startup’s first — “unlocks our ability to move faster on the things that matter most: stronger trust & safety, better product, and a more dynamic network,” Gallagher said in a LinkedIn post.
The company is profitable and will continue operating independently under Gallagher’s leadership, Bloomberg reported. As part of the arrangement, Match will phase out Archer app, its existing app for queer men that the company launched three years ago.
In a statement, Rascoff pointed to growing demand in this space, adding that “Sniffies feels genuinely different and authentic to its audience.” It’s clear the product “came from a strong founder instinct and a deep understanding of the community and how they actually want to connect,” he added.
Sniffies is Gallagher’s first startup. He studied architecture at the University of Washington, and then served as a project designer at HOK and McClennan Design where he worked on urban development projects globally and Microsoft’s Executive Briefing Center renovation project in Redmond, Wash.
The company’s chief marketing officer is Eli Martin, who studied business at Western Washington University and prior to Sniffies worked as a producer on broadcast and digital campaigns for PepsiCo and JPMorgan Chase.
Despite the influx of outside cash, Gallagher said Sniffies would remain centered on its users.
“The product, the tone, and the community will continue to be shaped by the people who use it,” he said in a second LinkedIn post.
