Gay hookup app Grindr acquires telehealth company Freddie for $250M

Gay dating and hookup app Grindr has acquired an HIV care provider, marking another step in the company’s foray into LGBTQ+ health.

Grindr announced Wednesday that it acquired PurposeMed Inc., which is the parent company of Freddie, “a leading telehealth provider of PrEP and HIV prevention care.”

“Grindr has a direct line to millions of gay men,” said Grindr CEO George Arison in the press release. “Freddie brings the medical expertise to turn that reach into care.”

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The purchase came at a $250 million price tag, with up to $70 million more in cash depending on “the achievement of certain performance targets,” according to the press release. The company said the sale is expected to close by the end of the fiscal year.

Grindr says it will use the deal to expand access to HIV care resources, including medicines like pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, which prevent the transmission of HIV.

Grindr is already involved with health entrepreneurship, operating a health and wellness business called Grindr Health. Earlier this year, Grindr announced it intends to help 10 million more LGBTQ+ people access HIV prevention resources by 2028. The company has called its acquisition of Freddie part of that effort.

Founded in Canada in 2020, Freddie is a telehealth company that prescribes HIV medicines to patients in all 50 states and across Canada, according to the press release.

"We built Freddie to make HIV prevention simple and accessible for everyone who needs it,” said Freddie CEO Husein Moloo in a statement alongside the announcement. “Today we estimate Freddie prevents a new HIV transmission across the US and Canada every day.”

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Neither Grindr nor Freddie returned The Advocate’s email requests for comment on Thursday. But executives at both companies expressed optimism around the deal in Wednesday’s press release.

“For generations of gay men, HIV shaped how we thought about intimacy, relationships, and our own futures,” Arison said. “Today, we have the tools to prevent it. New infections should be close to zero, and that is what we are striving to achieve.”

Founded in 2009, Grindr has roughly 15 million active users monthly, according to the company’s website. Freddie expects to generate more than $80 million this year, according to the press release.

“No one reaches the Freddie community like Grindr does. Together we can bring that care to millions more people, inside the app they already use every day, and speed up the work of ending the HIV epidemic,” Moloo said. “I’m incredibly proud of what our team has built, and we’re excited for this next chapter as part of Grindr.”