More sources have added weight to a rumour that Tinder are in talks to raise investment that would value the company at upwards of $750m.
Last month, Valleywag reported a rumour that venture capital firm Benchmark were looking to secure a $50m to $75m investment round in the app.
And TechCrunch sources have concurred that talks are happening, although a deal may still fall through due to leadership structures with regards to owner IAC.
Talk of the deal emerges just days after IAC and Tinder settled the ugly sexual harassment suit with former VP of marketing and co-founder Whitney Wolfe.
Tinder’s CMO, Justin Mateen, who was at the centre of the scandal, has now left the company.
Speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt, Tinder CEO Sean Rad skirted around questions relating to the possible investment, the lawsuit and their relationship with IAC.
On plans to monetise the app:
“We think this is something that we will do. We have to ask does this help users, would we do this even if it didn’t make us money? We can add value to the user and charge them. A lot of people think there’s a conflict between making money and adding value and there isn’t.”
On new feature Moments:
“We’re blown away by the results. It’s exceeded what we originally thought. We do 1.2 billion swipes a day and we create over 13 million matches a day. We’ve created 3 billion matches so far.”
On their relationship with IAC:
“Tinder is like every other company and you have shareholders and you have controlling groups. In our case IAC is the major shareholder and everyone has a major stake in Tinder’s success and we are aligned from the board down.”
On the investment rumour:
“Rumours. We haven’t raised any third-party capital and there’s no deal. We are in a fortunate position that we have internal sources of funding. We don’t need to raise outside capital, but it’s something we think about often.”
On the lawsuit:
“It’s a tough situation. Justin and Whitney were both my best friends. I think when you have that kind of relationship – and this closeness with an early team that was beside you and personally were your best friends – I think the lines get blurred.
“I’d do so many things differently. I think creating boundaries early on would have been healthy.”
This week, Barclays analyst Christopher Merwin upgraded their stock rating of IAC from equal weight to overweight, and said the app could be worth $1.1bn.
Watch Rad’s interview below: