Earnings Call Transcript - GRND Q4 2025

Operator, Operator

My name is Kate, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome you to the Grindr Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Tolu Adeofe, Director of Investor Relations.

Tolu Adeofe, Director of Investor Relations

Thank you, moderator. Hello, and welcome to the Grindr Earnings Call for the Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025. Today's call will be led by Grindr's CEO, George Arison; and CFO, John North. They'll make a few brief remarks, and then we'll open it up for questions. Please note, Grindr released its shareholder letter this afternoon, and this is available on the SEC's website and Grindr's Investor page at investors.grindr.com. Before we begin, I will remind everyone that during this call, we may discuss our outlook and future performance. These forward-looking statements may be preceded by words such as we expect, we believe, we anticipate or similar such statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and our actual results could differ materially from the views expressed today. Some of these risks have been set forth in our earnings release and our periodic reports filed with the SEC. 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 GAAP to non-GAAP measures, are included in the earnings release we issued 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.

George Arison, CEO

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. 2025 was an exceptional year for Grindr. Revenue grew 28% year-over-year to $440 million, and we delivered roughly $196 million of adjusted EBITDA, meaning we achieved more EBITDA than our revenue just 3 years ago. We accomplished that while materially improving the product and platform and while rapidly transitioning Grindr into an AI-native organization. With such a fantastic year, I'd point to 3 highlights. First, the core business stayed strong. We expanded the product in ways that deepen engagement and clarify intent, including the global expansion of Right Now and launches like For You, Chat Summaries, and A-List. We strengthened XTRA and Unlimited and expanded monetization through ad formats like Rewarded Video. Second, we made real progress on AI, not just as a feature, but as an operating advantage. In Q4, AI agents drove between 60% and 70% of our new code and our engineers are reporting roughly a 1.5x productivity improvement per person. We're now able to ship faster with higher quality without the company getting heavier and slower. Third, we took steps to drive revenue growth in a way that matches what we've built. Over the last several years, we've added a lot of new value to XTRA and Unlimited, significantly expanding what users get from both tiers. To ensure we're capturing the right economics and return, in August, we began rolling out new pricing for XTRA and Unlimited. Results have been encouraging, and we are continuing to roll out these changes globally through the first half of 2026. Looking ahead, our strategy for 2026 is to raise the baseline. Our best execution periods during 2025 with high output, high urgency, and high quality will become our default operating mode. From that baseline, we intend to push even higher. Therefore, this year, we are concentrating on 4 priorities: first, premium AI experiences and Edge. This AI-native premium tier is built for power users who want the most capable version of Grindr that today's technology enables us to build. We'll continue refining the experience and testing price points throughout the year. Second, durable core growth, meaning improving onboarding, translation, localization, personalization, and intent clarity through AI and beginning to strengthen the user experience in lower density and international markets. Third, operational rigor through Grindr, clearer ownership, higher productivity, rapid decision-making, greater leverage for our management layer, and AI embedded into everyday workflows across functions. Fourth, deliberate investments for durability and upside. We are leaning into reinvestment in our team, our platform foundations, and ecosystem health. That same posture applies beyond subscriptions; we will continue building Grindr Health anchored by Woodwork and we will keep strengthening our ads platform with increased focus on direct advertising and brand partnerships. At this point, these remarks were read by AI using a proprietary voice model trained on my voice by one of our expansion teams. We did that deliberately as a small demonstration of how deeply AI is becoming embedded in both our product and our operations. Our focus as a management team is to execute against the strategy that creates significant long-term shareholder value by building exceptional experiences for our users while driving sustained growth in revenue and profitability. At both the management and the Board level, we are committed to demonstrating this through our actions and doing all we can to earn our investors' long-term trust and support. Thank you to the Grindr team for delivering through another ambitious year and to our users for their continued willingness to come to Grindr for their Gayborhood. With that, I'll turn it over to John to review the financials and guidance.

John North, CFO

Thank you, George, and hello, everyone. I'll start by summing up the year and then dive into the fourth quarter. Grindr delivered outstanding results in 2025. Revenue grew 28% year-over-year to $440 million, and adjusted EBITDA was $196 million, representing a 44% margin. For the full year, we reported net income of $103 million compared with a loss in 2024 that reflected a noncash warrant liability revaluation. In the fourth quarter, revenue was $126 million, up 29% year-over-year. Direct revenue was $103 million and indirect revenue was $23 million for the quarter. Revenue exceeded our increased full-year guidance provided in November due to continued strength from our subscription and add-on offerings as well as strong performance in our TPA business, which benefited from strong demand from both our partners and growing international markets. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $56 million, a 44% margin, and net income was $29 million. We demonstrated operating leverage in the fourth quarter. Operating expenses, excluding cost of revenue, were $63 million. As a percent of revenue, those expenses declined to 50% from 54% in the prior year, which supported operating income for the quarter of $31 million or 25% of revenue. For the full year, operating expenses, excluding cost of revenue, were $201 million, declining 2% to 46% of revenue versus 48% in 2024. Operating income for 2025 was $126 million or 29% of revenue. We finished the year in a strong liquidity position. Cash and cash equivalents were approximately $87 million at year-end and total gross debt was roughly $396 million. We generated $133 million in free cash flow in 2025, which we utilized for both investment and growth initiatives and our share buyback program. Today, we announced a 3-year $400 million expansion of our share repurchase authorization and extended the program by 3 years to March 2029. This step reinforces our conviction in the strategy and our optimism about what's ahead for Grindr. In 2025, we repurchased 25.1 million shares against the original $500 million authorization for approximately $450 million. The balance of approximately $50 million will roll into the increased and extended program announced today, giving us total repurchase availability of up to $450 million. When we launched the initial 2-year $500 million authorization a year ago, a key objective was to offset the dilution we expected from the cash exercise of Grindr post the de-SPAC warrants. We moved through most of that authorization quickly, clearing the warrant overhang, eliminating nearly all of the associated dilution, and doing so without increasing our aggregate debt. This expanded authorization gives us flexibility to buy shares when appropriate and, in doing so, return capital to shareholders. Going forward, we expect our pace to be materially more measured. Because the business continues to execute at a high level with strong cash generation and real durability, we can return substantial capital to shareholders and keep investing aggressively in the long-term roadmap that will compound growth and profitability over time. Before I discuss our outlook, I'll briefly expand on user metrics and our updated MAU disclosure. Average MAU for 2025 was 15 million. Average paying users were approximately 1.26 million and ARPU was $24.25. As we discussed in November, we will be providing average MAU on an annual basis rather than quarterly going forward. This change better reflects the way we manage our business, focusing on delivering value and a great experience to our reliable funnel of free users and enhancing the features we provide to our paying users, and aligns our disclosures with many of our public consumer Internet peers. We'll continue to provide quarterly visibility on leading engagement indicators. Finally, we have introduced our outlook for 2026. We expect to continue growing the business while scaling investments in longer-term initiatives, including premiumization, AI, and the Gayborhood. For the full year 2026, we expect revenue exceeding $528 million and adjusted EBITDA exceeding $217 million. As we have consistently discussed, we guide to what we have a clear line of sight to. George noted some of our early initiatives like Edge and Woodwork are not yet included in our outlook as the pace of revenue growth is not yet predictable, though the investments and expenses are factored into our adjusted EBITDA for the year. We will continue to invest carefully with discipline to protect our ability to generate strong cash flow. Additionally, while we do not provide guidance on a quarterly basis, we currently expect our revenue growth rate and adjusted EBITDA margin in Q1 to pace well ahead of our annual results, reflecting early year revenue momentum and the timing of our planned 2026 investments, respectively. As noted in the past, we do not manage our business for quarter-to-quarter performance, but for long-term durable and sustainable growth and profitability. In closing, 2025 was another great year of strong growth, outstanding margins, and durable free cash flow generation. Beyond our highly cash-generative business model, we have a healthy balance sheet that gives us the flexibility to invest and return capital. And with that, operator, please open the line to questions.

Operator, Operator

Your first question comes from Andrew Marok with Raymond James.

Andrew Marok, Analyst

Thanks to AI, George, for the remarks. If we could start with 2026, I guess, what you've seen so far in terms of things like retention and churn impacts from your pricing actions that you've done to your base plans at this point and kind of some of the assumptions underpinning Edge into the '26 outlook? And then I have a follow-up.

George Arison, CEO

I can begin with that, and John can add if he wishes. Regarding 2026 and the pricing changes, we were pleased with the results of the test we conducted in 2025, starting around August. The user base responded positively to the price changes, indicating that we have added substantial value to both XTRA and Unlimited over the past 3 to 4 years. Many new features and products were included in those tiers without additional charges. This suggests that users appreciate the offerings. Consequently, paying a bit more for the added value generated over the past 3 years was manageable and well-received. Therefore, we do not anticipate any significant impact on conversion from the pricing changes we've implemented. We will roll out these changes globally during the first half of the year. Many users are already experiencing them, but we are not yet at full implementation, which we plan to achieve in H1. As for Edge, the products within this tier have been in testing for some time, but it officially launched in Q4 of last year in Australia. The feedback has been very positive, and the demand exceeded our expectations significantly, which suggests that we may not have priced it to reflect its true value. To better understand appropriate pricing, especially since we have never offered a product of such value before, we decided to run tests outside of Australia. We initiated tests in select U.S. and other global markets with a considerable number of paying users. These tests are ongoing, and some details have surfaced publicly, as is common when conducting price tests. We expect testing to continue through H1 and likely into Q3 as well. Edge is being developed as a foundational element for growth in 2027. If we expand Edge globally outside of testing in 2026, it would provide additional upside that is not included in our guidance for the year.

Andrew Marok, Analyst

Great. Really clear there. And then maybe in a different direction, following the break of the proposed takeout offer a couple of months ago, you were left with two major shareholders, one of whom has been selling down a stake pretty significantly. I guess can you give us any color as to your expectations for how the situation plays out and how you're approaching the governance situation in the meantime?

George Arison, CEO

Thanks for the question. I appreciate where the question is coming from, and I understand that this is an important issue for a lot of shareholders. We ourselves get this question from folks pretty regularly and also appreciate that in light of last fall, there is more interest in that. As I believe everybody knows, James has stepped down from the Board, and the Board does continue to view this issue as quite important, and that's something that they've always considered. I think one of the things that came out from last fall is that everybody is in alignment that Grindr remaining a public company is the best thing to do. That's true for Ray as our largest shareholder; that's true for the remainder of the Board, and that's true for management as well. I think the other thing that surfaced last fall that was very positive is that Michael Gearon, our Lead Independent Director, was willing to step into that role when James stepped down. Michael is among the most successful entrepreneurs in the world, period. To have him in that role is extremely valuable to me. He's been a great mentor, and I've learned a lot from him in the 3.5 years we've been working together, and I'm very much looking forward to continuing to work with him in that capacity. Since going public, Grindr has maintained an independent Board, and our Board is very committed to remaining independent and continuing to strengthen that independence. That's not something new that started just in the fall; it's been a long-standing effort. We have been adding new directors. We added Chad Cohen as a Director in May. I think it was a very positive addition to us given his financial expertise and roles twice as the CFO of a public company. We are in the process of interviewing candidates for Board membership now. We've interviewed over a dozen very serious and credible candidates so far with support from two different search firms, and we will continue that process for the next several weeks as we prepare for the shareholder meeting this summer, and I think there will be an update on that at the shareholder meeting. Lastly, I'd say that I have a very positive relationship with Ray. Ray has been a very good shareholder to Grindr. What Ray, James, and Michael did when they rescued this company from China ownership was substantial, and it really saved the product and preserved it for the community, and I think that's incredibly valuable. In the four years that I've known Ray, we've had a very positive and strong working relationship. He is a very entrepreneurial investor who prefers to think about the long term and is very optimistic about the future and what the company can achieve, whether it's as a business overall or within the products that we're launching and is quite knowledgeable about what we're doing and what our roadmap is, which I think is very encouraging. I've learned a lot from him as well. Obviously, he has expertise in areas that I don't know much about, like capital markets. I've really enjoyed working with him. I believe he will continue to be a very committed shareholder for the long term, dedicated to this business. You could see that from the fact that last year, even though he owned so much of the company, he bought even more ownership by contributing nearly $200 million into the business at the time. We're in a very strong position from a governance standpoint, and the Board will continue to focus on ensuring that we operate as an independent company, which is very important to me and to the Board.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from Nathan Feather with Morgan Stanley.

Nathaniel Feather, Analyst

Congrats on the results here. I guess first, I'm thinking about the at least 20% revenue growth guidance you gave. Can you help us think through the primary contributors that are included within that, whether it's the price increase or other kinds of factors? And then second, really interesting to hear the positive receptivity to the Edge tier. Can you provide some more information on what the early subscribers are saying is the primary value they're getting? There are a lot of different features, so trying to contextualize what are the things that people are really circling as the things that are really improving my experience.

John North, CFO

Nathan, good to hear from you, and I really appreciate you picking up coverage earlier this week. So thank you for that. I'll take the guidance question, and then maybe I can turn it over to George for the second question. When we think about guidance, our philosophy has been pretty consistent from the beginning, which is what do we have line of sight to and how do we think about the business over the long term. We're not going to take a quarterly approach to managing the business. We're going to be long term and thoughtful in how we discuss our outlook. That's reflected in the guidance for '26. The 20% revenue growth, to your point, is still a great growth rate. It's primarily focused on the product enhancements that we've been making over the last 18 to 24 months and the fact that we hadn't taken a price increase since 2018, if you can believe it. As George mentioned earlier, we implemented those pricing changes right at the end of last year. Those will continue to evolve through the first two quarters of this year. That's our expectation for where the majority of the revenue growth is going to come, along with continued advertising business growth, which was up 37% last year, and ensuring that we also enhance the quality of that business, both through better advertising, such as rewarded ads and also through direct advertising. So those are the primary drivers as we think about it. To the extent there are expansion opportunities, Edge gets pulled forward, or similar situations occur, we don't have line of sight to that now, so it's not included in the guidance.

George Arison, CEO

With regards to Edge, thanks for the question. I'm excited about Edge because I developed the concept thinking through the existing opportunities, and the team has done a remarkable job at making it happen. It's exciting because it's built on technology that wasn't in existence 4 years ago. One of my theses when taking this role and joining Grindr was that AI would become a game changer in how technology is developed. Grindr was uniquely positioned to become an AI-first company, and AI-first product because we have a lot of data. AI requires good data to be effective. We have a significant amount of data to utilize. The challenges Edge aims to address are twofold. One is that users often have numerous conversations inside Grindr that don't develop significantly, partly because new conversations take over, right? Grindr is an open architecture platform, allowing users to chat with anyone, resulting in users engaging in multiple conversations at once. Power users, in particular, manage even more conversations, but the average user sends around 50 messages daily. This can cause valuable conversations to be overlooked or lost. The second issue we're addressing is discovery. Grindr profiles have limited information about users. We prioritize privacy and do not require users to disclose much. However, this limits the ability for potential matches. We are introducing AI functionality for Edge subscribers, particularly to offer insights into other users’ behavioral patterns to help in making engagement decisions.

Andrew Marok, Analyst

Thanks, George. That’s really helpful context. You mentioned in an earlier response about better onboarding and other product features. Is there anything unique you’re doing outside of pricing that could meaningfully influence retention rates in this context?

George Arison, CEO

We're very focused on onboarding improvements. An important aspect is creating a more streamlined and user-friendly experience for new users. This can help reduce friction during initial engagement and also address some user concerns we hear about. We're implementing features that ensure users can find potential matches effectively and quickly. Another aspect is personalization, ensuring users feel the app is catering to their needs and preferences. By enhancing the onboarding process and matching experience, we aim to drive better retention among our user base.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from Eric Sheridan with Goldman Sachs.

Eric Sheridan, Analyst

And maybe building on that last answer, George, the first part would be just how your philosophy might change over time with respect to striking the right balance in terms of tiering the products and the platform. So you're continuing to grow the user base and also evolving the user funnel more broadly described on the platform? The second part of the question would be, what have you learned about marketing as a potential stimulant for either accelerating the path towards higher tiers or more monetization for the platform more broadly or just user acquisition or traffic more broadly?

George Arison, CEO

Thanks, Eric. Let me start with the first one. Historically, Grindr has maintained a very strong free tier. Two factors contribute to its robust nature compared to most other products of our kind. Firstly, unlimited messaging is a defining feature; users can message anyone and continue conversations without restrictions on the number of messages. This has resulted in an average of 50 messages sent by users per day, significantly higher than platforms like WhatsApp. Secondly, discovery sets Grindr apart as users can view a pool of individuals to interact with while moving to different locations. We aim to maintain this robust free user experience. We'll continue to slowly introduce paywalls across the experience, which increases the appeal of our premium tiers. We've seen significant benefits from this approach as users find value and are willing to pay more for the additional features introduced over time. We will focus on offering premium features to power users to stimulate revenue growth while providing an excellent experience for free users. This could involve unwinding some existing paywalls to improve the overall freemium experience. Regarding marketing, Grindr achieved success despite a lack of marketing focus in the past. After arriving, I identified it as a huge opportunity, and we pushed to engage users in a more meaningful way. Although we have strong brand awareness in the U.S., there is potential to enhance our reputation further. Our marketing efforts aim to create experiences that resonate with users, garnering appreciation and loyalty for our brand. We recently altered our marketing approach, utilizing campaigns that resonate culturally with our community. We’ve seen positive branding impacts and intend to expand our efforts internationally, focusing on regions where our brand recognition is less developed. By doing so, we hope to tap into new user bases that are eager to embrace Grindr.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from Andrew Boone with Citizens.

Andrew Boone, Analyst

I wanted to ask about Woodwork. Can you help us understand how that fits into the monetization playbook for 2026 and then out years? I understand you're moving away from the MAU metric, but we've seen two quarters of slowing growth. Is there anything else we should be considering or that you want to highlight as we think about MAU growth moving forward as you transition to annual disclosures?

George Arison, CEO

Absolutely. Woodwork is not projected in our revenue guidance for 2026. It's included from a cost perspective, but costs are relatively modest due to our partnerships with third parties. Consider Woodwork as a start-up within Grindr. Launched in spring last year, it has catered to thousands of users and launched multiple products. We're taking a careful approach to growth, akin to how start-ups operate. Over time, Woodwork presents significant growth potential for us and strengthens our overall health offering while enhancing the Grindr user experience through synergistic products. Regarding MAU, we don't consider quarterly MAU metrics for our management approach. Our focus has been long-term, and we previously admitted to removing unwanted accounts more aggressively. We removed approximately 350,000 accounts in 2025 compared to the previous year. We also disclosed an adjusted MAU growth number reflecting growth without the removals, which was around 6.1%. We anticipate the continuation of this trend for 2026. While we are focusing on improving retention for older cohorts, especially internationally, these developments will take time and won’t yield immediate results.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from Logan Whalley with TD Cohen.

Logan Whalley, Analyst

Yes, Logan on for John Blackledge here. Two questions. As you improve app functionality and undertake big projects like rewriting the codebase, how do you weigh investment behind engineer headcount versus investment in AI tooling to enhance current engineers' productivity? Secondly, regarding your '26 guidance, you mentioned unwinding paywall dynamics and ad triggers. Could you provide more detail on this, specifically what it looks like for app users?

George Arison, CEO

Yes. Thank you for that question. The first issue is pivotal. I have emphasized the significance of AI integration in our operations for quite some time. Synthetic AI agents are becoming integral to our future operations, particularly in engineering, where we're making considerable strides in adopting AI. In Q4, 60% to 70% of the code produced was written by AI. We predict those numbers will rise further. This doesn't diminish the role of engineers; on the contrary, it elevates their importance because skilled engineers can leverage these tools effectively, increasing their own value. This creates a scenario where one exceptional engineer can achieve the output of multiple engineers due to AI assistance. We'll continue to recruit talented individuals while concentrating on maintaining high performance standards. Regarding unwinding paywall dynamics, traditionally, when we launch paywalls or triggers, they're implemented uniformly across the platform. We're learning that these features may not hold the same value universally. Therefore, our approach will be more tailored to geographical and user-specific needs, enhancing user satisfaction and retention.

Operator, Operator

There are no more questions at this time. I'd now like to turn the call over to George for closing remarks.

George Arison, CEO

Thank you, everybody, for joining. I hope this video version of the call was worth it and helpful for folks, and we'll aim to do that again in May. Looking forward to seeing you then.