Match Group invests $100 million in Sniffies, a cruising app for gay men

Match Group, the dating app behemoth that owns Match, Tinder, OkCupid and Hinge, says that it has invested $100 million in yet another mobile service designed to bring people together: a Grindr competitor known as Sniffies.

The website for Sniffies sports various images of men in their underwear. That tells you pretty much all you need to know about the app, which is a self-proclaimed “cruising”— or hookup — matching service for gay men. The app includes what it calls a “real-time, fully interactive map of nearby Cruisers and popular local cruising spots.”

“From the first time I met the Sniffies team a year ago, it was clear they had a deep understanding of their users and a strong point of view on how its community actually connects,” said Spencer Rascoff, Chief Executive Officer of Match Group, in a press release Monday.

Sniffies, based in Seattle, has an estimated 3 million monthly active users, Match says. The company will continue to operate independently, with Match Group assisting the team’s “vision and growth,” it said.

Match Group has struggled in recent years as Americans have suffered from dating app burnout and have continually expressed a desire to meet lovers the old-fashioned way — like bumping into each other at a bookstore or asking an attractive person for their phone number. In February, Match Group beat its Q4 estimates but reported declining user growth at flagship apps like Tinder.