Gay hookup app Grindr will acquire the telehealth provider Freddie, which provides PrEP medication to prevent HIV, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The $250 million deal, in cash and stock, is the app’s first major acquisition and represents an expansion beyond dating. The plan is to offer PrEP at little to no cost through Grindr’s platform, Grindr CEO George Arison told the Wall Street Journal.
The purchase is the “logical next step,” Arison continued, “where we can deeply integrate the Grindr product experience with getting a medication that is lifesaving, and that a lot more people should be on than are on today.”
Freddie will be merged with Woodwork, the telehealth company Grindr launched last year, into a single Grindr Health experience, the Wall Street Journal reported. “Grindr Health is going to be an area of the business that we’re going to focus a lot more on, in addition to our normal subscriptions and advertising,” Arison said.
Grindr agreed to pay £26 million to settle a lawsuit over allegations that it shared users’ HIV statuses.
