Grindr Inc.

Second-quarter revenue grew 33% year over year to $138 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $58 million, equal to a 42% margin, and adjusted EBITDA grew 27% year over year. App-based revenue grew 30% year over year to $113 million, and advertising revenue grew 44% to $25 million. Operating expenses excluding cost of revenue were $71 million, up from $53 million in the second quarter of last year, partly due to one-time marketing expenses for the Madonna partnership. For full-year 2026, management raised guidance to approximately $540 million of revenue, from $535 million, and approximately $232 million of adjusted EBITDA, from $227 million. Management said third- and fourth-quarter growth should moderate as it laps pricing changes and tougher comparisons from late 2025, but it expects ad revenue to remain in the mid- to high teens as a percentage of total revenue for 2026 and normalize near 15% in 2027 and beyond.

George Arison framed the quarter as evidence that Grindr is becoming an AI-native company and said the business is seeing stronger organic momentum from product work across the app. He emphasized three themes: AI-driven productivity, product improvements in the free experience and Right Now, and brand-building through the Madonna activation. His tone was notably upbeat and expansive, saying the company is “firing on all cylinders” and that Grindr’s opportunity is larger than the market has historically recognized.

John North highlighted the quarter’s hard numbers: $138 million of revenue, $58 million of adjusted EBITDA, and a 42% margin. He attributed the beat to stronger conversion, ARPU, retention, and ads, while noting operating expenses of $71 million excluding cost of revenue, partly because of the Madonna event. He also said the company completed another $60 million accelerated share repurchase in the quarter, has about $300 million remaining under its $900 million authorization, and continues to buy back shares opportunistically. On guidance, he said the higher full-year outlook mainly reflects first-half outperformance, better-than-expected pricing elasticity, and higher AI-driven operational leverage, while maintaining the longer-term margin framework of 39% to 42%.

Analysts focused on Right Now adoption, the 2.5x engineering output claim, the second-half growth deceleration, ad-load discipline, margin expectations, Edge packaging, platform health, and Gen Z engagement. Management said Right Now is being refined based on user feedback, including letting users post without tying the post to their main profile, and that it is already seeing strong traction. On AI, Arison said the 2.5x figure came from comparing shipped work in July 2025 versus April 2026 and that the company is using frontier tools like Cursor, Claude Code, and increasingly Devin. North said the back-half slowdown is mostly a timing/comparison issue tied to earlier pricing actions and stronger 2025 comps, not a change in the company’s view of the business. For ads, management said it is balancing monetization with free-user experience and expects direct ad sales to remain a challenge despite the Madonna case study, while Gen Z engagement remains strong with 46% of U.S. users and over 50% globally in the 18-to-30 range.