© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Grindr app is seen on a mobile phone in this photo illustration taken in Shanghai, China March 28, 2019. REUTERS/Aly Song/Illustration
By Echo Wang
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Popular gay dating app Grindr LLC has agreed to go public through a blank-check firm whose founder was part of a consortium that bought the company in 2020, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.
The deal with Tiga Acquisition Corp will raise $384 million including $284 million of the special-purpose acquisition company’s cash in trust plus up to $100 million in a forward purchase agreement, valuing the company at $2.1 billion including debt, according to the filing.
The dating app was valued at $620 million when it was sold in 2020 by its Chinese owner.
Tiga Acquisition Corp went public in November 2020 to raise $240 million, a few months after the Grindr sale. The SPAC would have to liquidate later this month if it failed to reach a deal with a potential merger target, after several extensions of the liquidation deadline.
G. Raymond Zage III, the founder and CEO of the SPAC, was a member of San Vicente, a consortium of investors that bought Grindr from Beijing’s Kunlun Tech Co in 2020.
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