Growlr Founder Comments on Acquisition

The founder of gay dating platform Growlr has discussed its recent takeover by The Meet Group, an acquisition deal that was reportedly worth $11.8 million.

Coley Cummiskey created the dating space in 2010 for bears, GBT slang for heavy-set, hairy and masculine men. It is possible for him to receive a $2 million bonus over the next couple of years if the app can reach certain targets.

The two companies have been in talks for the past year, and the deal marks The Meet Group’s fourth purchase in the last three years.

Cumminskey said to Out Magazine: “I’m excited at what this means for the Growlr community.

“The Meet Group dramatically expands our access to development and marketing resources, shares our commitment to the bear community, and allows to dramatically expand our own live video products given TMG is a leader in applying live video to dating communities”.

Geoff Cook, CEO of The Meet Group, told the same publication that he was attracted to Growlr because it was a “bootstrap” success story. He commended Cumminskey and his small team for turning it into a service with over 200,000 daily active users.

Cook told GDI in an interview that he had been monitoring the gay dating market and was excited to have it integrated with live streaming by the end of 2019.

The Meet Group reported revenue of $52.5 million in Q4 2018, a 31% year on year increase.

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