Grindr Inc.

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, 2024, 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 measures, are included in the earnings release we issue 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.

Thanks, Tolu, and hello, everyone. The Grindr team delivered another awesome quarter with revenue of 30% year-over-year and adjusted EBITDA margin of 47%. The results put us in a great position as we finished the year. Today, we're increasing our expectation for full-year 2025 adjusted EBITDA with a range of between 191% and $193 million, implying a margin of greater than 43%, and we are reaffirming our revenue growth outlook of 26% or greater. Our new CFO, John North, will walk you through the results in a moment. We're thrilled to have him join Grindr. He's led high-performing finance teams at Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies and served as a public company CEO. He's already become an invaluable partner to HMU as we execute on our long-term vision. Over the past three years, we've focused on expanding Grindr's product service area, delivering more capabilities and high-quality experiences for free and paid users alike. On page four in my shareholder letter, you'll see a chart showing that our product expansion has been tremendous, creating enormous value for users and driving higher conversion, more revenue capture, and an increased revenue per pair. Grindr now offers a richer, more effective experience powered by strong technology and a granite feature set. Users adore products like Albums, Boost, Travel Boost, Udemy, and RightNow. Through GenAI, we have given users access to powerful features like chat summaries, discovery, and profile recommendations. All in, we've made the Grindr app more magical, dynamic, and rewarding than it was just a few years ago, and we're only getting started. Expanding both our product surface area and the value we've created for paying users has put us in a strong position to test subscription price changes for the first time since 2018. We asked new subscribers in a large set of test markets to pay slightly more and experience a de minimis impact on our paying user base, with retention exceeding even our most optimistic projections. We're deeply grateful for our paying users' vote of confidence in our direction demonstrated by their willingness to invest more for the new value and capabilities we've built. Over the next few months, we'll continue gathering data and prepare for a global rollout early next year. Concurrently, in one country, we've begun alpha testing a new AI-powered premium tier designed for power users who want the most advanced and magical experiences. Think of it as the flagship first-class cabin of Grindr. a feature that simply weren't possible two or three years ago before GenAI. This year targets a smaller segment interested in higher value products, offering distinctive user benefits and a meaningful revenue opportunity, beginning in late 2026 and accelerating in 2027. Our rich free experience remains central to Grindr's power, fueling the unmatched scale and vitality of our network. Capturing revenue through exceptional value added features enable us to continue bolstering an already rich, free experience and to maintain the open, conversational architecture that makes Grindr unique among any gay or straight platform that will always remain a top priority. A defining strength of Grindr is its ability to renew itself with new users. Every year, gay and bi men all over the world join as they become adults. Grindr is often the first place they learn about being gay, explore gay culture, and find all types of connections, from casual dates and hookups, to love, to work-out meets, to friendships. This generational influx keeps the platform vibrant, relevant, and ever-growing, with younger cohorts driving engagement across the network and older ones driving monetization. To help illustrate this characteristic, which is very unique to our platform, we've included a one-time demographic disclosure with our shareholder letter. It highlights why Grindr's strong, consistent engagement, especially among users aged 18 to 29, who make up a majority of our global user base, positions us for durable, long-term growth. We recognize that many of our investors aren't Grindr users and hope these insights make our user dynamics and community more tangible to you. Overall, the products and business are performing exceptionally well. and the team remains laser-focused on delivering more value and more success to our users every day. Before I wrap up, I'm sure everyone has seen the filings from two of our large shareholders, Ray Sage and James Liu, proposing to take Grindr private. The board has formed a special committee of independent, disinterested directors to evaluate the proposal. The committee is working with its own independent financial and legal advisors. From the company standpoint, That process will run its course. Our team remains unwaveringly focused on execution. We are fortunate to work every day on things we love that bring happiness to millions of people and make a world that is more free, equal, and just. Granta has enormous potential to create value while continuing to deliver a product of deep importance to its users. And our job is to keep driving towards that. As all will say on this matter at this time, and we won't be taking any questions about it on today's call. Thank you to the Granite team for delivering outstanding results we are reporting today. We're proud of what we've achieved, excited for a strong finish to the year, setting the stage for another standout year in 2026. Now here's John to cover the results.

Thank you, George, and it's great to be here with all of you. I look forward to meeting many of you in the near future. I'm excited to be a part of Grindr and what the incredibly talented team is building. I've known and respected George for a long time, and the Grindr business model is among the most powerful I've ever seen. I see my role as further strengthening the finance organization, expanding our capital markets relationships, and ensuring the company scales efficiently and profitably as we deliver on our vision. As George highlighted, we had a phenomenal Q3. Total revenue was up 30% year over year to $116 million. Adjusted EBITDA at $55 million was up 37% year-over-year, resulting in two points of margin improvement to 47%, a record for Grindr. Our direct revenue grew 25% year-over-year, while indirect revenue was up 56%. Our ads business was the primary driver of outperformance in the quarter, as we saw strong results from international third-party advertising partners. In the core app, revenue growth was driven by our strength in our unlimited tier, which this year saw the introduction of additional duration options and feature updates, alongside the ongoing success of our weeklies product across subscription tiers. Our user KPIs were strong, with an average of 1.3 million paying users in the quarter for an improved penetration rate of 8.6%. Average MAU totaled 15.1 million, and ARPU was $24.70. Our adjusted EBITDA margin performance reflected a strong flow-through of our revenue, outperformance to the bottom lines, as well as higher capitalized product development costs. Operating expenses, excluding cost of revenue, were up 9% year-over-year, largely related to people costs as we execute on our innovation roadmap, including our AI initiatives. Grindr's net income for Qtree was $31 million, or $0.16 per alluded share, compared with $25 million, or $0.09 per share, a year ago. We generated approximately $51 million in free cash flow in the third quarter. Year-to-date, we've repurchased 25.1 million shares of our common stock, for approximately $450 million, leaving us with $50 million remaining under our current authorization as of September 30th. Our board regularly reviews capital allocation plans, including options for returning excess cash. Turning now to our guidance, our strong Q3 results give us increased confidence in our 2025 outlook. And as George mentioned, we now expect our full year 2025 adjusted EBITDA will be between $191 and $193 million, implying a margin greater than 43%, And we are reaffirming our revenue growth outlook of 26% or greater. As I noted in the P&L review, our 30% total revenue growth in Q3 was largely driven by outperformance in our ads business, which we do not expect to repeat in Q4. Recall that in our 2024 fourth quarter, we benefited from a large one-time brand campaign. In conclusion, Q3 was a very strong quarter that reinforces Grindr's powerful business model. We're in a great position to deliver our annual guidance, which we increased earlier this year, and are advising upward today. And with that, we'll open the call up for some questions.