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GRND

GrindrB
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2026-06-02
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2026-05-12
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Earnings documents stored for GRND.

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Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-12

Surging Earnings Estimates Signal Upside for GRINDR INC (GRND) Stock

Zacks

Grindr Inc. (GRND) appears an attractive pick given a noticeable improvement in the company's earnings outlook. The stock has been a strong performer lately, and the momentum might continue with analysts still raising their earnings estimates for the company. Analysts' growing optimism on the earnings prospects of this company is driving estimates higher, which should get reflected in its stock price. After all, empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements. This insight is at the core of our stock rating tool -- the Zacks Rank. The five-grade Zacks Rank system, which ranges from a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) to a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive externally-audited track record of outperformance, with Zacks #1 Ranked stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 2008. Consensus earnings estimates for the next quarter and full year have moved considerably higher for Grindr Inc., as there has been strong agreement among the covering analysts in raising estimates. The chart below shows the evolution of forward 12-month Zacks Consensus EPS estimate: The company is expected to earn $0.13 per share for the current quarter, which represents a year-over-year change of +62.5%. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for GRINDR INC has increased 8.33% because one estimate has moved higher compared to no negative revisions. For the full year, the earnings estimate of $0.58 per share represents a change of +34.9% from the year-ago number. There has been an encouraging trend in estimate revisions for the current year as well. Over the past month, two estimates have moved up for GRINDR INC versus no negative revisions. This has pushed the consensus estimate 6.42% higher. Thanks to promising estimate revisions, GRINDR INC currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). The Zacks Rank is a tried-and-tested rating tool that helps investors effectively harness the power of earnings estimate revisions and make the right investment decision. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Our research shows that stocks with Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and 2 (Buy) significantly outperform the S&P 500. GRINDR INC shares have added 24.9% over the past four weeks, suggesting that investors are betting on its impressive estimate revisions. So...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-11

Grindr (GRND) Valuation Check After Q1 2026 Earnings Beat And Raised Guidance

Simply Wall St.

Track your investments for FREE with Simply Wall St, the portfolio command center trusted by over 7 million individual investors worldwide. Grindr (GRND) is back in focus after Q1 2026 results, as the stock reacts to an earnings beat, strong revenue performance, raised full year guidance, and plans around its upcoming Edge premium tier. See our latest analysis for Grindr. The Q1 2026 beat and higher guidance have come alongside a 35.0% 3 month share price return and a 12.37% 1 month share price return, even as the 1 year total shareholder return of 43.52% decline contrasts sharply with the very large 3 year total shareholder return. If the recent move in Grindr has you thinking about where else momentum and growth stories might emerge next, it could be worth scanning 40 AI infrastructure stocks for your watchlist. With GRND trading at $13.81 and screening on some metrics as at a discount to both analyst targets and certain intrinsic estimates, the key question is whether recent gains still leave room for upside, or if the market is already pricing in future growth. With Grindr’s fair value narrative set at $18 against a last close of $13.81, the story centers on whether current pricing fully reflects its longer term earnings and cash flow potential under a modest discount rate of 8.77%. Read the complete narrative. Curious what kind of revenue climb, margin profile, and future earnings multiple are baked into that $18 fair value narrative, and how sensitive it is to those assumptions. Result: Fair Value of $18 (UNDERVALUED) Have a read of the narrative in full and understand what's behind the forecasts. However, this hinges on Grindr keeping rising operating expenses and advertising constraints in check, as any margin pressure or weaker ad demand could quickly challenge that upside story. Find out about the key risks to this Grindr narrative. The DCF narrative suggests upside, yet the market is currently paying a P/E of 30.1x for GRND, compared with a fair ratio of 21.7x, the US Interactive Media and Services industry at 20.1x, and peers at 11.2x. That is a wide gap. Is the market being generous, or just early? See what the numbers say about this price — find out in our valuation breakdown. With sentiment clearly split between upside potential and real risks, this may be a good time to review the data yourself, decide where you stand, and then weigh those vi...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-11

Grindr Q1 Earnings Call Highlights

MarketBeat

Interested in Grindr Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. Grindr delivered a strong Q1, with revenue up 38% year over year to $130 million and adjusted EBITDA rising 44% to $58 million. The company also lifted full-year guidance to at least $535 million in revenue and at least $227 million in adjusted EBITDA. Growth was driven by app revenue and advertising, including a 33% increase in app-based revenue and a 68% jump in advertising revenue. Management said recent pricing changes improved conversion and retention, and the direct ad business could expand further over time. EDGE is being positioned as the next major growth driver, with a premium AI-focused tier targeted for late 2026 or early 2027. Executives said the product is expected to command a significant premium and could become a meaningful monetization lever in 2027. Grindr (NYSE:GRND) reported a strong start to 2026, with executives saying first-quarter revenue rose 38% year-over-year to $130 million as the company benefited from app-based revenue growth, advertising strength and recent pricing changes. CEO George Arison said on the company’s first-quarter earnings call that Grindr delivered “exceptional results” in the period, including a 21% net income margin and a 45% adjusted EBITDA margin. CFO John North said adjusted EBITDA increased 44% year-over-year to $58 million. → Wells Fargo’s Comeback Is Real—But Not Risk-Free “We have now shown repeatedly that when we improve the product, expand the value users get from Grindr, and monetize thoughtfully, the business responds,” Arison said. Following the first-quarter performance, Grindr raised its full-year outlook. The company now expects at least $535 million in 2026 revenue and at least $227 million in adjusted EBITDA, representing a $10 million increase from its February outlook for adjusted EBITDA, according to North. → Rocket Lab Posts Record Q1 Revenue, Raises Q2 Guidance North said the quarter’s performance was driven by strength in core app revenue, including pricing changes, better conversion and retention, and advertising. App-based revenue grew 33% year-over-year, while advertising revenue increased 68%. The company also highlighted its first large year-long direct advertising campaign, which North said will lift advertising revenue into the “mid to high teens” as a percentage of total revenue for 2026. That increase is occurring ev...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-09

Grindr (GRND) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript

Motley Fool

Image source: The Motley Fool. Thursday, May 7, 2026 at 5 p.m. ET Chief Executive Officer — George Arison Chief Financial Officer — John North Director of Investor Relations — Tolu Adeofe Operator: Good day, everyone. My name is Dannie, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome you to the Grindr First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Tolu Adeofe, Director of Investor Relations. Thank you. Tolu Adeofe: Hello, and welcome to the Grindr Earnings Call for the First Quarter 2026. Today's call will be led by Grindr's CEO, George Arison; and CFO, John North. They will make a few brief remarks, and then we'll open it up for questions. Please note, Grindr released its shareholder letter this afternoon, and this is available on the SEC's website and Grindr's Investor page at investors.grindr.com. Before we begin, I will remind everyone that during this call, we may discuss our outlook, future performance and future prospects. You should not rely on forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and our actual results could differ materially from the views expressed today. Some of the risks that could cause our actual results to differ from views expressed in our forward-looking statements have been set forth in our earnings release and our periodic reports filed with the SEC, including our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, or any subsequently filed quarterly reports. During today's call, we will also present both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. Additional disclosures regarding non-GAAP measures, including a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most closely comparable GAAP financial measure are included in the earnings release we issued today, which has been posted on the Investor Relations page of Grindr's website and in Grindr's filings with the SEC. With that, I'll turn it over to George. George Arison: Thanks, Tolu, and hello, everyone. We delivered exceptional results in Q1 2026. Revenue grew 38% year-over-year with a net income margin of 21% and adjusted EBITDA margin of 45%. We have now shown repeatedly that when we improve the product, expand the value users get from Grindr and monetize thoughtfully, the b...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-08

Grindr Inc. Reports First Quarter 2026 Revenue Growth of 38%, Raises Guidance

Business Wire

First Quarter 2026 Revenue of $130 Million Net Income of $27 Million, Net Income Margin of 21% Adjusted EBITDA of $58 Million and Adjusted EBITDA Margin of 45% Increasing expectation of full-year 2026 Revenue of at least $535 Million and Adjusted EBITDA of at least $227 Million LOS ANGELES, May 07, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Grindr Inc. (NYSE: GRND) ("Grindr" or the "Company"), the Global Gayborhood in Your PocketTM, today posted its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026, in a Letter to Shareholders. The Letter to Shareholders can be accessed on Grindr’s Investor Relations website: https://investors.grindr.com/. "Grindr’s exceptional first quarter performance sets us up for another year of strong growth, reflected in our raised 2026 outlook," said George Arison, Grindr CEO. "The team is executing with speed and precision as we invest in durable core growth, prepare for the global launch of Edge, and continue broadening Grindr’s cultural relevance. We are making the core use case better through new features in Right Now, while also expanding Grindr’s role in the lives of our users. That means extending the platform’s ability to deliver new experiences, attract iconic partners, and create new forms of value for our community and our shareholders." Earnings Webcast Information Grindr will host a live webcast today at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time to discuss the Company’s first quarter 2026 financial results. The webcast of the conference call can be accessed as follows: Event: Grindr First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call Date: Thursday, May 7, 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time (5:00 p.m. Eastern Time) Live Webcast Site: https://investors.grindr.com/ An archived webcast of the conference call will also be accessible on Grindr’s Investor Relations page, https://investors.grindr.com/. Forward Looking Statements Some of the statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including our guidance for 2026. Forward-looking statements relate to expectations, beliefs, projections, future plans and strategies, anticipated events or trends and similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. These forward-looking statements include statements regarding our intentions, beliefs, current expectations or projections concerning, among other things, results...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-08

Grindr Shares Rise After Higher Q1 Earnings, Revenue That Beat Forecasts

MT Newswires

Grindr (GRND) shares were up over 7% in Friday premarket activity, a day after the company reported

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-08

Grindr Inc. Q1 2026 Earnings Call Summary

Moby

Our analysts just identified a stock with the potential to be the next Nvidia. Tell us how you invest and we'll show you why it's our #1 pick. Tap here. Revenue growth of 38% was primarily driven by successful pricing increases implemented in late 2025, which did not result in the typical churn levels expected with such changes. Management attributes strong conversion and retention to significant product value creation over the last two to four years, validating their 'thoughtful monetization' strategy. The company is transitioning from a narrow-use-case app to a 'Global Gayborhood,' expanding into content partnerships like the Madonna album activation to increase cultural relevance. Operational efficiency is being redefined through an 'AI-native' approach, with engineers reporting 1.5x higher productivity and small teams outperforming much larger legacy structures. While MAU growth remains strong, government age-assurance rules and repressive policies in markets like Malaysia and Indonesia are creating a headwind of approximately 400,000 users. The advertising business is being strategically rebalanced, prioritizing high-value direct campaigns and rewarded video over high-frequency third-party ad loads to protect ecosystem health. Full-year 2026 revenue guidance is raised to at least $535 million, though growth rates are expected to moderate in H2 as the company anniversaries previous pricing increases. The new premium tier, 'Edge,' is positioned as the primary revenue growth driver for 2027, targeting a high-value segment of 0.5% to 1% of total MAU. Management is intentionally delaying the full launch of Edge to late 2026 or early 2027 to optimize pricing strategy and marketing positioning for maximum long-term impact. Adjusted EBITDA margin guidance of 39% to 42% reflects a conscious decision to prioritize growth-oriented investments in product, tech, and brand marketing over immediate margin optimization. Future monetization efforts will focus on creating upscale, value-added premium experiences rather than solely relying on increasing total payer penetration. The company retired 8.3 million shares in Q1, deploying approximately $140 million of its $500 million share repurchase authorization. Direct advertising remains a challenge as many brands are still hesitant to allocate significant budgets to the platform despite its high-disposable-income audience...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-08

Grindr Inc. (GRND) Q1 Earnings and Revenues Beat Estimates

Zacks

Grindr Inc. (GRND) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.14 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.13 per share. This compares to earnings of $0.09 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of +12.00%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this company would post earnings of $0.13 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.1, delivering a surprise of -23.08%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates two times. GRINDR INC, which belongs to the Zacks Internet - Software industry, posted revenues of $129.94 million for the quarter ended March 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 9.81%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $93.94 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates three times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. GRINDR INC shares have lost about 0.4% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 7.6%. While GRINDR INC has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for GRINDR INC was favorable. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to outperform the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here....

TranscriptFY2026 Q12026-05-07

FY2026 Q1 earnings call transcript

Earnings source - 65 paragraphs
Operator

Good day, everyone. My name is Danny, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome you to the Grindr first quarter 2026 earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time and have joined via the webinar, please use the Raise Hand icon, which can be found at the bottom of your webinar application. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Tolu Adeofe, Director of Investor Relations. Thank you.

Tolu Adeofe

Hello, and welcome to the Grindr earnings call for the first quarter 2026. Today's call will be led by Grindr's CEO, George Arison, and CFO, John North. They will make a few brief remarks, and then we'll open it up for questions. Please note, Grindr released its Shareholder Letter this afternoon, and this is available on the SEC's website and Grindr's Investor page at investors.grindr.com. Before we begin, I will remind everyone that during this call, we may discuss our outlook, future performance, and future prospects. You should not rely on forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and our actual results could differ materially from the views expressed today.

Tolu Adeofe

Some of the risks that could cause our actual results to differ from views expressed in our forward-looking statements have been set forth in our earnings release and our periodic reports filed with the SEC, including our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31st, 2025, or any subsequently filed quarterly reports. During today's call, we will also present both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. Additional disclosures regarding non-GAAP measures, including a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most closely comparable GAAP financial measure, are included in the earnings release we issued today, which has been posted on the investor relations page of Grindr's website and in Grindr's filings with the SEC. With that, I'll turn it over to George.

George Arison

Thanks, Tolu. Hello, everyone. We delivered exceptional results in Q1 2026. Revenue grew 38% year-over-year with a net income margin of 21% and adjusted EBITDA margin of 45%. We have now shown repeatedly that when we improve the product, expand the value users get from Grindr, and monetize thoughtfully, the business responds. Given our Q1 performance and what we can see today, we are raising our full-year outlook and now expect at least $535 million in revenue and at least $227 million adjusted EBITDA for 2026. I will focus on a few highlights. As always, I encourage you to read our Shareholder Letter, which goes into significantly more details on these topics as well as a number of others.

George Arison

Our focus in 2026 is clear, making Grindr a more useful day-to-day, more personalized, and more valuable across a broader range of user needs and intentions. That means continued work in the core app, including Right Now, Maps, Health Center, significant rearchitecture, and broader deployment of AI. We're also driving towards the global rollout of EDGE, our new premium tier. Built around our AI capabilities, EDGE is designed for power users who want the most advanced experience current technology can offer. Based on user testing, we expect that EDGE will command a significant premium to our current subscription offerings and anticipate that it should be our largest driver of revenue growth in 2027. As our offerings expand, Grindr's position in the market is broadening as well.

George Arison

We're staying true to and strengthening our core use case with Right Now, while also becoming a broader and more durable category leader, serving one of the most culturally influential communities in the world across many use cases. That is what the Global Gayborhood in Your Pocket means. Moving away from what is core to Grindr and to gay life but building outward from it into a product, brand, and platform that play a larger role in the lives of our users. Over time, we aspire to be not just a known brand, but a loved one with greater cultural relevance, broader utility, and the ability to expand into adjacent categories where our relationship with users gives us a unique right to win. Our recent Madonna partnership is a strong example of that strategy in action.

George Arison

It is a major in-app activation ahead of the global release of her new album, Confessions on a Dance Floor II, and exemplifies the content partnerships component of our product and business. It also is reflective of Grindr's position and culture. Our users do not just consume culture, they help shape what breaks and what matters. As we introduce more elevated experiences, Grindr is also becoming a more premium platform. One able to attract iconic partners and create new forms of value that strengthens the brand and expands our positioning well beyond that of a narrow use case app. We also continue to build our advertising platform as a meaningful driver of long-term growth. A strong free product remains essential to the health of our network.

George Arison

This year, we are taking steps to improve the free experience meaningfully, including reducing certain ad triggers, expanding rewards-based advertising, and rearchitecting the front end of our iOS and Android apps. Activations, reactivations, and overall engagement remains strong. Retention is improving, notwithstanding pricing changes. These strong engagement results are clear indicators that the product quality is getting better. While our MAU growth remains strong in a small number of international markets, we are also seeing MAU headwinds from two types of government actions. First, certain new age assurance rules lead some adults, including those particularly focused on privacy, to drop out of the account sign-up or login flow prior to even entering the age assurance process. Separately, and far more troubling for our users, we face a real pressure in certain countries with the repressive policies against members of our community, like Malaysia and Indonesia.

George Arison

We estimate that in total, MAU would have grown by an average of 400,000 more in 2026 than the current full-year trajectory if we were not facing these two distinct factors. This is not financial material to us for reasons discussed in my letter. We're continuing to strengthen Grindr for the long term on behalf of shareholders, including nominating three new independent directors for election at our annual meeting and, as John will discuss, beginning execution under our expanded share repurchase program. Overall, I could not be happier with our fantastic start of 2026. The team is executing exceptionally well across technology, product, brand, and the business more broadly. I'm very proud of and grateful for their hardcore approach to everything we do.

George Arison

Because of their dedication, we believe Grindr is set up to deliver strong growth this year and next, and we are excited for what lies ahead. With that, I'll turn it over to John to walk through the results in more detail.

John North

Thanks, George. Hello, everyone. Q1 was strong across the board as George highlighted. Revenue grew 38% to $130 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $58 million or a margin of 45%. The performance was driven by strength in core app revenue, including our pricing changes but also better conversion and retention as well as ads. App-based revenue grew 33% year-over-year, ad revenue is up 68%. In ads, we have our first big year-long direct ad campaign, which will take our ads revenue up into the mid to high teens as a percentage of total revenue for 2026. That's netted against moderation in third-party ad loads that we began implementing in the first quarter in connection with our priorities around user experience and ecosystem health.

John North

In 2027, we expect ads as a percentage of total revenue to normalize back to the 15% range that we've historically delivered. Adjusted EBITDA grew 44% to $58 million or a margin of 45%. The strong result is an outcome of both the revenue outperformance and the timing of planned expenses. In our March call, we communicated that we planned higher investments this year in support of our priorities for the business. While these investments began to flow through the P&L in the first quarter, we expect to see that pick up in the second quarter as we execute on planned product and tech development initiatives as well as marketing in support of the brand initiatives George highlighted. Turning now to share repurchase activity.

John North

This is detailed in our Shareholder Letter, but I'll call out that we retired 8.3 million shares of our common stock in the first quarter. Across December and the first quarter, we've deployed approximately $140 million in authorized repurchases. We've used a variety of mechanisms, including prepaid written put options and accelerated share repurchase and forward repurchase transactions so that the capital deployed will settle over time through the third quarter of this year. We have $350 million remaining in our current buyback authorization. For our guidance. We are raising our 2026 outlook to include revenue at least $535 million and adjusted EBITDA of $227 million, a $10 million increase from our February outlook.

John North

The increase in estimated revenue reflects stronger payer conversion, which is continuing into the second quarter and the lift from the brand campaign. Keep in mind that we expect our growth rates will moderate in the second half of this year, in particular in the fourth quarter, as we anniversary the rollout of our pricing increases. Our higher adjusted EBITDA outlook reflects the stronger revenue picture and continued strong AI leverage in engineering, offset somewhat by the planned investments we discussed, which are starting to increase in the second quarter. Overall, we are excited about the strength of the business, and we'll manage with discipline as we execute on our plans for the year as we always do. With that, operator, let's open up the call for questions.

Operator

We will now move to our question-and-answer session. If you have joined via the webinar, please use the Raise Hand icon, which can be found at the bottom of your webinar application. When you are called on, please unmute your line and ask your question. Our first question today comes from Nathan Feather at Morgan Stanley. Nathan, you may now unmute your line and ask your question. Thank you.

Nathan Feather

Hey, everyone. Thanks so much for taking the question. Congrats on the strong quarter here. Can you provide a little bit more color on what you're seeing in the testing so far for EDGE, both in terms of consumer receptivity to the individual features along with the price receptivity? You noted it's gonna be the major driver for 2027, I guess. How should we think about the rollout timing here? Thank you.

George Arison

Hi, Nathan. Good to talk to you. Great question. We have a lot of data on EDGE from the testing that we've done, so I'll split that into two things. On the product side, a bunch of the features that are all in EDGE have actually been tested for quite some time in 2025. We feel really confident about the product experience that we've created and about the features that we've built and that users really will like them, and it'll be a really great thing for the product overall. Where we are really focused on now is pricing.

George Arison

We've done one pretty big price test in an English-speaking country, not in the U.S., and got really good results, which tell us that EDGE will be priced at a significant premium to what we offer today, incrementally more. That gives us a lot of confidence that EDGE is a very good home run. What we're now spending time on is determining whether EDGE can be a grand slam with a higher price point. The key to that is having better clarity around how we wanna position it in the product and kind of the marketing that we wanna do around it. EDGE is not designed as a product for mass consumption. It is built for a small number of power users on Grindr.

George Arison

I think someone's asked me in the past, and I said, you know, anywhere between 0.5% to 1 percentage point of our MAU being in EDGE after several years, I would view as a really powerful outcome. We're now looking at that kind of marketing piece of it and how to position it into the market and how to then price it based on the value that users are getting. The value equation's really the critical thing for us. We feel really good about where EDGE is headed. We are gonna put another test out into the market later this spring or perhaps in June. Based on those results, we'll have a better sense on when we wanna launch it.

George Arison

I know for us, the really critical thing is to have it be ready for 2027. That would imply, you know, late 2026 or early 2027 launch. We're doing so well this year, and everything's firing in such a strong way that there's no rush to put EDGE into the market. We think that getting it right and making sure that it can be as big as it can be and unleashing its full potential is where we would win the best.

Nathan Feather

Great. That's helpful. Then just one more from me. You know, 1Q revenue growth. Really strong, but also kind of tracking well ahead of the full-year guidance. You know, John, can you give me a sense of the shape of revenue growth over the course of the year? Then what are the major puts or takes that could lead, you know, revenue growth in the back half to be a little bit higher than we're expecting here? Thank you.

John North

Nathan, thanks for the question. I'd break it into a few, I guess, topical comments to help frame it for you. We alluded to this in the prepared remarks. You know, we've certainly got a benefit from the pricing increases that we introduced at the end of last year. That was planned. That was baked in our forecast. That was in the numbers we gave you when we introduced this year. I think we have a little bit of upside there in the quarter because we didn't see the typical churn to the degree that we would with pricing increases happening. There was a little bit of a benefit there.

John North

The direct ads business we talked about has that large benefit this year with the campaign with one of our key partners. You know, that came in a little faster than we expected in the first part of the year. There's gonna be an impact in the back half of the year as a result. Those are the two kind of big drivers that push things ahead for us in the first quarter and let us to be confident enough to raise what our outlook was for the year. You know, on the back end of that, it's exactly what you flagged, which is that we're gonna see a deceleration in the third and the fourth quarter.

John North

Some of that's a function of having a really good fourth quarter last year, where we outperformed, so it's a tougher comp. Some of it's, you know, really just the product cadence and how things are gonna launch this year, which is exactly what we're expecting. We did also mention that we're investing in the future. You know, so our margin is an important thing to talk about as well. We're expecting that, you know, to be impacted through the year because we're bringing on people. We're investing in products and things that are not revenue generating that are gonna set up 2027 and beyond. So that's all kind of what's in the thinking, and happy to, you know, dive into that in more detail with you offline if we can be more helpful from a modeling perspective.

John North

We are anticipating a bit of a deceleration in the third, and particularly the fourth quarter to get to that implied full-year number, which is exactly what we're anticipating. George maybe can talk a little bit more about some of the specifics around the product side.

George Arison

Yeah. If you look at Grindr's history over the last five years, usually a step change in revenue, a kind of new revenue has come from something significant that we've launched on the product side 'cause we are a product-driven kind of revenue company. If you look at, say, 2021, we launched more profiles that led to a big step change in revenue growth. In 2022, we launched Boost, middle of the year. That led to a big growth in revenue in 2022 and 2023. In 2024, we launched weekly pricing for Unlimited. That drove growth in revenue. For our business to continue to grow revenue in a significant way, we need to launch the next big thing kind of in a reasonable timeframe.

George Arison

The last big thing we launched was the price change, which was a way for us to monetize the value that we have created for users over the last, you know, two to four years. The results of that have been really strong. You know, churn is down. Reactivations and activations are up, which is not what you'd expect to happen when you raise prices. I think it speaks to the fact that we have created a ton of value in the product in our paid tiers. Users are recognizing that. Given that we started the price increases in Q4, you know, for us to have another step change in revenue growth in Q4 of this year, we would need to launch some big product.

George Arison

That next big product is EDGE. As I spoke earlier, we feel very confident about how well EDGE will do. We might not launch it in Q4, and that would lead to deceleration in Q4 and then acceleration looking into 2027. That year obviously is looking really good from that point of view as well.

Nathan Feather

Very helpful. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Andrew Boone at Citizens. Andrew, you may now unmute your line and ask your question. Thank you.

George Arison

Hi, Andrew.

Andrew Boone

Thanks so much for taking the questions. I would love to ask about two things, one near term and then maybe one more that's strategic. George, how do we think about Match and Sniffies and the competitive environment now that Sniffies may have a larger balance sheet and funding behind it? As we think about your platform evolution here, it's really clear that there's a bigger picture strategic view. Can you bring this more into financial terms for us and talk about the benefit that we should expect in terms of shareholders from the broadening of the platform and what that could mean from a financial lens? Thanks so much.

George Arison

Great, thanks for the question. On Sniffies, I'll start with a congratulations. You know, we've gotten to know the Sniffies guys over the last couple years. I've spent time with Blake and his brother. I'm, you know, very happy for them. They were looking for liquidity, and I'm very glad that it happened in this powerful way. I'm also a little bit happy for Grindr because this investment really speaks to the work that we've done in getting the public market used to a company like Grindr. You know, if you look at where we are today versus where we were 3.5 years ago, the world has fundamentally changed.

George Arison

I think our team has done a really fantastic job in letting people understand what Grindr is and how big the opportunity space here is. I don't know if people know. You know, about a decade ago, Match really wanted to buy Grindr. The team was really behind it, and they got blocked by the Board. It's awesome that we're now past that, and there was acceptance of investing in Sniffies. As far as in a competition for us, you know, we always pay attention to competition, and Grindr's had plenty of competition from the day it frankly started, right? Grindr was not the first digital gay product. Manhunt and Adam4Adam were by far the dominant platforms when Grindr launched. Ever since then, Grindr's had competition.

George Arison

We always pay attention to competition, and it obviously matters. From our perspective, what really matters is us being the product that people go to first in wallet and spend the most amount of time in and are most engaged with. By every metric that we have internally, that has continued to be the case and frankly, in some respects is accelerating. Like, in the time period that I've been at Grindr, the amount of time that people spend on the app has only increased. We feel really good about our position in the market and what we need to do on a go-forward basis. You know, Sniffies is a different product, and it serves a very specific use case.

George Arison

Sniffies entered the market when Craigslist eliminated personals out of concern for sex trafficking. That opened up this space for cruising for people who were using Craigslist before and was a very heavily used product. That's the kind of space that Sniffies has captured. We obviously have a much broader set of use cases that really kind of, you know, offer users many different things. We feel we're in a really good place in that regard. Again, there's place for more than one product. We know people use more than one product, and that's totally okay. We're focused on executing our strategy, and we're speeding up, not slowing down, is how I think about it.

George Arison

On your second question on the platform. You know, when I joined Grindr, and frankly, for the year before I joined Grindr when I was learning more about Grindr, the assumption I would hear from everybody was the best way for Grindr to make more revenue is to get more people to become payers. There's logic to that, right? Like, Grindr was at sub 6% payer penetration, and our peers in the straight category are at, you know, 15%. Maybe even 20%. It would make sense that you could convert a lot more people to become payers. We've done a bunch of that, right? We've gone from 6%- you know, sub 6% to 8.5%+, and that's with MAU growing pretty significantly.

George Arison

If we had stayed static, we'd be over 10% payer penetration today. Ultimately, the free experience on Grindr is really, really critical, and that's the reason why everyone comes into the product on a regular basis as they become adults. From our view, the better way to monetize on a go-forward basis is to create value-added experiences for people on a premium level. Hence, why we're building EDGE and a bunch of other premium experiences inside the product. From that perspective, creating a more upscale experience for our brand is something that will help a more elevated and a more premium experience in the product, and that will be the primary way in which we drive revenue growth, you know, in 2027 and 2028 and beyond. By the way, none of this is new.

George Arison

Like, this is what we had set out to do, when we talked about it in Investor Day. We're just executing it on a, at roughly the timeline that we had expected we'd be doing.

John North

George, I'll just hop in. I mean, on the longer term margin question. You know, that's really not the primary focus for us. There's certainly a world in which we could continue to turn levers within the business to improve the EBITDA margin. Whether it's, you know, more payer conversion. Whether it's getting more productivity out of people. Whether it's figuring out direct payments so we don't pay so much in fees to the App Store. You know, there's things that can be done, but that's not been the primary focus.

John North

You know, growing the revenue base overall and diversifying the revenue base in different ways is where the focus is. We're consciously investing and taking, you know, a view to the future, you know, both this year and beyond to continue to create the growth avenues for Grindr, which is more important to us. I would much rather see an improving growth rate as opposed to an improving margin percentage.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Andrew Marok at Raymond James. Andrew, you may now unmute your line and ask your question. Thank you.

Andrew Marok

Hi, thanks for taking my questions. Maybe first on the age assurance issue. We've seen some other companies in the digital media ecosystem kind of have variable results with how they are impacted by age restrictions or age checks. I guess what are some of the key learnings that you've seen in the geographies where they've been required so far, and how can they inform future potential implementations to minimize the friction of engagement or sign-up based on the particular concerns of the Grindr community? Then maybe second on advertising, great to hear about the full-year campaign. I guess was there anything in particular that got this company to come on and make a big campaign or was it just kind of fortuitous timing in how the pipeline of those bigger deals might be? Thank you.

George Arison

Thanks for the questions. On age assurance, I always wanna start by saying Grindr's an 18+ product. We don't want anybody under 18 using Grindr, and we are really strong proponents of App Store or phone-based age verification. We've endorsed federal legislation that would mandate that at the national level. We've supported legislation in California and Texas and Utah that's achieved that as well. I think that's really, really important. I'm a dad, and I don't want my 6.5 year olds being on Grindr. I don't want them touching Grindr until they're 18, and that's something we believe in really, really strongly. The approach that some of the countries have taken internationally at mandating age verification at the app level comes with a lot of challenges to the user.

George Arison

It means that a user has to validate their age in multiple apps, which obviously increases the risk that their information will come out. We have a set of users, because, you know, something's leaked, et cetera. We know we have a set of users who are extremely privacy conscious. Oftentimes, they're people who are still in the closet, who are very, very discreet. These adult users, and I wanna be very clear we're talking about adults, just simply choose to drop out of the process before they go through the age verification flow. We actually have a pretty good age verification flow.

George Arison

We use facial recognition to determine if you are of age first, and only if that technology is unable to determine that you're over 18 do we then put you to a secondary flow where you have to show ID. Even that process alone gets some people to drop off, and these are adults, not people who are underage. We think that the alternatives to that, which is the App Store or mobile device-based verification's a much better approach, and that's what we're gonna keep advocating for. Obviously we'll comply with laws as they happen. It has impacted MAU growth. To be very clear, MAU is still growing very nicely actually.

George Arison

MAU would have grown by, you know, an amount larger than what it's gonna grow this year if these rules were not in place in some of the countries. I would expect more countries will adopt rules that are similar to this. Though again, we're gonna continue advocating for App Store or device-level verification. On advertising, maybe to step back a little bit on the ads business overall before I answer this specific question. We've had incredible success with that business. We went from a roughly $30 million business in 2022 that was decelerating and, frankly, didn't really have a path to grow, to a business that, based on guidance that we've shown you know, is gonna be over $90 million this year.

George Arison

That's tripling the business in a four-year period, which I think the team deserves nothing but huge congratulations for that. You know, we've said at Investor Day, we want ad business to be kinda roughly the same percentage of revenue as it was in 2022, which is roughly 15%. That meant that the ads business had to grow faster than the core business, and again, it's achieved that. I'm very, very proud of what the team has done. At the same time, where I've, you know, probably been most disappointed in my time at Grindr is that getting the direct ad business where brands come and work directly with us, has not been as successful as, frankly, I would have liked it to be.

George Arison

We hear from brands a ton that they wanna reach our type of audience that is taste-making, that has high disposable income, et cetera. They're not willing to put dollars to work on Grindr, and that's still work that we have to do from the brand perspective on our brand. That's the work that we have to do from technology perspective and creating the technology that advertisers want us to have in the application to help them advertise, as well as from data perspective, like what are they actually getting in return? Grindr's a great place to advertise from the point of view of building your brand. It is not a direct response type of a channel because people are in a different mindset when they're on Grindr.

George Arison

They're not actively looking to kind of transact on something else where, when they're in the app. That obviously creates a special way of, you know, pitching the brand perspective of it. People are very used to buying direct response ads, but less so for what we offer. I'm still very bullish that over the long term, we will win in that direct advertising business, but I think it's gonna take us a really long time. That doesn't mean that the ad business cannot grow. We expect the ad business to keep growing in the years to come and to stay at that 15% of total revenue baseline that we had in 2022 and that we've aimed to maintain. There's still a ton of growth for the ad business.

George Arison

I think we'll continue to see a ton of positive results from rewarded video, which actually makes the user experience in the app better as well. That's one of the things that we are seeing a lot of traction with. With this particular advertiser, we had been working on them for almost two years. They had been advertising with us during that period of time as well. It's the same advertiser that had a big push in Q4 of 2024, you might remember, when we had a big uptick in revenue as a result of that. You know, we have a relationship with them. We're really happy that they're advertising, but I wouldn't expect something similar to repeat in 2026. Hopefully, we can create more opportunities for bigger direct advertising partners in 2027, sorry, in 2028 and beyond.

Andrew Marok

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Operator

Thank you. Our final question today comes from Logan Whalley at TD Cowen. Logan, you may now unmute your line and ask your question. Thank you.

Logan Whalley

Hey there. Thanks for the questions. First could I ask about discreet mode and kinda how you think users will engage with that feature looking forward? Do you expect this kinda opens up a new use case with the app or maybe just changes how people engage with the app? Secondly, on your plans for incremental hiring in the middle of the year. Where do you expect that headcount efforts will be directed towards within the business? Thanks.

George Arison

Great. Well, I'll take the first one and then maybe John and I can split the second one. On discreet mode, discreet is for Right Now specifically. You can not to be discreet on the app overall. We already have a way for people to browse the grid without actually showing up on the grid if that's what they want. Some people do want that. This is for Right Now. What we heard from a lot of users who we surveyed or got feedback from was that they wanna post in Right Now, but they don't want their posting in Right Now to be connected to their profile on Grindr.

George Arison

A lot of people, you know, have friendships on Grindr. For discretion reasons, they don't want to be telling everyone they know, "Hey, I'm posting in Right Now," which is perfectly reasonable. The discreet mode has enabled that capability where a person can post on Right Now, will receive messages from other people who are in Right Now, or who are interested in Right Now. You will not be able to see the connection to your regular profile. That way you kind of keep that discretion. You know, that is something that people really wanted. I think it is going to be a good feature in making Right Now a better product for people who want that.

George Arison

There's a ton that we're doing with Right Now that I'm not yet in a position to publicly talk about that I think will keep making that experience better and better for people. We have a very large percentage of Grindr users that use Right Now on a, you know, multi times a week basis. We're really happy with that, but we still think there's more that we can do to make it even better. When it comes to hiring, you know, we definitely have been behind on the number of people that we need for quite some time, right? I'm known to run a very lean operation. Grindr has, you know, over $2.7 million in revenue per head at the end of last year.

George Arison

We felt that we need more people and we had a fairly aggressive hiring plan for the year. We are probably, we're doing very well on hiring, but I don't think we're gonna end up hiring everyone that we had envisioned. That's reflected in the EBITDA margin or in the EBITDA raise that we gave for the year in this release. You know, one of the reasons why we won't probably hire everyone is because how we work is fundamentally changing. We've said in the past that our engineers are self-reporting that they are 1.5x more productive than they were, you know, nine months ago.

George Arison

We now have teams of, in, on the product team that are being, you know, small teams of four people are able to produce as much work in a week as teams of 10 or 20 people would have previously produced in the course of a month. That's all because of AI. The roles of engineer, product manager, designer, data scientist are all kinda collapsing in that now they are all doing all parts of that work, meaning a designer can code and function as a product manager or a product manager can code and also do design. Terraforming this business to be an AI-native business is really changing how we work, and the amount of productivity that you're getting from the teams.

George Arison

As a result, we, you know, given how lean we are, we don't have the same problems that a lot of other companies have. We do, and we still need more people in terms of hiring, but we do wanna be judicious in how we hire and who we bring on board because we want them to be much more AI-native to fit in this new mode of working that we are that we are now evolving in inside the company. I don't know, John, if you wanna add anything onto that.

John North

I would just say, you know, the 39%-42% EBITDA margin is healthy. As we talked about on an earlier question, even as a CFO, if you told me I could grow revenue or I could grow margin, I would choose revenue right now. I think that margin optimization isn't the most important thing. To George's point, the guidance and the plan that we had in place contemplated hiring and investing in the future and that it was gonna impact margin as a result, which it, you know, did. Also to his point, you know, we've been able to increase that because the plan has changed as we've evolved. I do also echo the sentiment that we're investing in the business in other places, which would include like investing in marketing efforts and spending more money there.

John North

You see us doing more, I think, culturally relevant events like the White House Correspondents' Dinner or partnering with Madonna on her album launch. You know, those are things we're doing that are marketing investments outside of attracting users to the app. They're really about improving our cultural relevance and what we bring to the community and to your user base overall. We've, you know, been working our way through that, testing those things. I think as we've achieved success in some of these events and these touch points that become these cultural flashes, we have more confidence to invest some more money in marketing because it's working. Those are the kind of things we're thinking about and balancing.

John North

You know, certainly there's a case to be made to just optimize for margin all the time. That really doesn't give us the trajectory to execute on the vision that George has laid out to really continue to round out the app in many different ways, and to expand the number of modalities in which we can reach revenue and reach users.

Logan Whalley

Great. Thank you.

Operator

That concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect.

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-05

Here's What Investors Must Know Ahead of Serve Robotics' Q1 Earnings

Zacks

Serve Robotics Inc. SERV is scheduled to report first-quarter 2026 results on May 7, after market close. In the last reported quarter, the company delivered a loss per share of 46 cents, which was narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of loss per share of 49 cents, but was broader than the loss of 23 cents per share a year ago. However, the quarterly revenues surpassed the consensus mark by 16.5% and grew year over year by 398.3%. Serve Robotics’ earnings beat the consensus mark in two of the last four quarters and missed on the remaining two occasions, the average negative surprise being 18.1%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter loss per share has broadened over the past 60 days to 65 cents from 52 cents. The estimated figure indicates a whopping 306.3% year-over-year decline from the loss of 16 cents per share. The consensus mark for revenues is pegged at $2.3 million, implying a 430.7% year-over-year increase. Serve Robotics Inc. price-eps-surprise | Serve Robotics Inc. Quote Revenues The first-quarter top-line performance of Serve Robotics is expected to have significantly increased year over year due to the scale of its fleet deployment across more than 20 United States cities. Moreover, the growing digital partnerships with big names like DoorDash and Uber Eats, alongside accretive acquisitions, are likely to have supported the growth during the quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate of revenues from SERV’s Fleet services and Software services is pegged at $1.95 million and $0.27 million, up from $0.21 million and $0.23 million reported in the year-ago quarter. The consensus mark for daily active robots (the average number of robots performing daily deliveries during the period) and daily supply hours (the average number of hours the company’s robots are ready to accept offers and perform daily deliveries during the period) is pegged at 1,074 and 12,778, respectively. The estimated figures indicate 1,371% and 1,872% year-over-year growth, respectively. Earnings The bottom line of SERV is expected to have plunged in the first quarter year over year because of the comparatively higher expenses incurred on research and development, operations, sales and marketing. The consistent investments are pulling down the near-term profitability of the company, even though they are expected to realize high benefits in the long term. The company expec...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-04-30

Grindr Inc. (GRND) Reports Next Week: Wall Street Expects Earnings Growth

Zacks

Wall Street expects a year-over-year increase in earnings on higher revenues when Grindr Inc. (GRND) reports results for the quarter ended March 2026. While this widely-known consensus outlook is important in gauging the company's earnings picture, a powerful factor that could impact its near-term stock price is how the actual results compare to these estimates. The earnings report, which is expected to be released on May 7, might help the stock move higher if these key numbers are better than expectations. On the other hand, if they miss, the stock may move lower. While management's discussion of business conditions on the earnings call will mostly determine the sustainability of the immediate price change and future earnings expectations, it's worth having a handicapping insight into the odds of a positive EPS surprise. This company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.13 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +44.4%. Revenues are expected to be $118.34 million, up 26% from the year-ago quarter. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. This is essentially a reflection of how the covering analysts have collectively reassessed their initial estimates over this period. Investors should keep in mind that the direction of estimate revisions by each of the covering analysts may not always get reflected in the aggregate change. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise Estimate revisions ahead of a company's earnings release offer clues to the business conditions for the period whose results are coming out. Our proprietary surprise prediction model -- the Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction) -- has this insight at its core. The Zacks Earnings ESP compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter; the Most Accurate Estimate is a more recent version of the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. The idea here is that analysts revising their estimates right before an earnings release have the latest information, which could potentially be more accurate than what they and others contributing to the consensus had predicted earlier. Thus, a positive or negative Earnings ESP reading theoretically indicates the likely deviation of the actual earnings from the consensus estimate. However, the model's predictive power is significant for positive ESP r...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-04-24

Grindr Announces Date of First Quarter 2026 Financial Results Earnings Call

Business Wire

LOS ANGELES, April 23, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Grindr Inc. (NYSE: GRND), the Global Gayborhood in Your Pocket™, announced that it will release its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026, after the market closes on Thursday, May 7, 2026. Grindr will issue a press release when its Shareholder Letter has been posted to its Investor Relations website at https://investors.grindr.com. Following the release of the Shareholder Letter, Grindr will host a webcasted conference call to discuss its results. Earnings Webcast Information Event: Grindr First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call Date: Thursday, May 7, 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time (5:00 p.m. Eastern Time) Live Webcast Site: https://investors.grindr.com An archived webcast of the conference call will be accessible on Grindr’s Investor Relations page, https://investors.grindr.com. About Grindr Inc. With 15 million average monthly active users, Grindr has grown to become the Global Gayborhood in Your Pocket™, on a mission to make a world where the lives of our global community are free, equal, and just. Available in 190 countries and territories, Grindr is often the primary way for its users to connect, express themselves, and discover the world around them. Since 2015, Grindr for Equality has advanced human rights, health, and safety for millions of LGBTQ+ people in partnership with organizations in every region of the world. Grindr has offices in West Hollywood, the Bay Area, Chicago, and New York. The Grindr app is available on the App Store and Google Play. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260423740904/en/ Contacts Investors: [email protected] Media: [email protected]

As of 2026-05-30 • Updated weeklySource: Earnings sourceIngestion runbook