Shares of Grindr Inc. more than tripled Friday after the dating app closed its merger with a blank-cheque company, giving two investors stakes worth billions, at least on paper.
G. Raymond Zage III, a former partner at hedge fund Farallon Capital, owns a stake worth more than US$2.6 billion ($3.57 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Zage founded blank-cheque company Tiga Acquisition Corp. in 2020. Tiga agreed to acquire Grindr, which is popular in the LGTBQ+ community, in May at a deal that valued it at about US$2.1 billion.
Grindr’s shares jumped as high as US$71.51 on Friday before retreating to US$36.50 at the end of regular trading in New York. That’s still up more than 210% from Tiga’s closing price Thursday.
Zage is the chief executive officer of Tiga Investments, a Singapore-based investment company that he founded in 2017. Prior to that, he was the CEO of Farallon Capital Asia. Another Farallon Capital alumni, Ashish Gupta, joined him at Tiga and now has a stake in Grindr worth more than US$280 million. Zage owns 43% of Grindr, while Gupta owns 4.5%.
Zage was already an investor in Grindr before his SPAC took it public, leading a deal to acquire it for US$600 million in 2020 after US regulators pressured its former owner, Beijing Kunlun Tech, to divest it due to national security and data concerns.
Zage didn’t respond to a request for comment. Patrick Lenihan, a Grindr spokesperson, said in an emailed statement that the company is “glad to have a shareholder base of committed, passionate supporters of the LGBTQ community who have invested in growing our business.”
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Grindr’s share price needs to be viewed with caution, as a low float led to wild swings following its merger. Roughly 98% of Tiga’s investors opted to redeem their stock despite voting to approve its merger with Grindr.
The limited number of shares available to trade can drive large stock swings. Grindr’s shares saw more than 15 volatility halts Friday.
Another big winner from the pop in Grindr’s shares is James Lu, Grindr’s chairman and the founder of Joffre Capital. He’s also the CEO of Life Concepts Holdings, an investment company mainly involved in restaurant operations. Lu’s 23% stake in Grindr is worth more than US$1.45 billion.
Lu previously served as the global head of Amazon Marketing Services, the advertising branch of Amazon.com Inc.
