Tinder Parent Match Group In Talks To Acquire Stake In Shaadi.com

Online dating major Match Group is reportedly in advanced talks with matrimony platform Shaadi.com to pick up a strategic stake in the Indian company. 

The deliberations, which have been ongoing for the past one month, involve just the two brands and the details are yet to be ironed out, The Economic Times reported.

“Over the past one month, Match Group and Shaadi.com have had a few rounds of strategic discussions and are currently at the final stage of discussions where finances are being discussed,” a source was quoted as saying. 

Another person familiar with the development told the publication that the Match Group is looking to buy out institutional shareholders. The dating giant is also exploring the option of investing in primary equity in the Indian platform. However, there is no clarity yet on the exact financial terms and arrangement of the deal. 

The development comes nearly five months after Anupam Mittal, the CEO and founder of People Group, the parent company of Shaadi.com, said that the matrimony platform was looking to go public in the later half of 2023. 

Match Group operates online platforms like Tinder, Hinge, OKCupid and OurTimes. It has a market cap of over $11 Bn and commands a major share in India’s dating market. 

With the deal, Match group could be looking to strengthen its play in the lucrative Indian matrimony market, which has a handful of other players such as Jeevansathi and Bharat Matrimony. 

The reports come barely a month after Match Group restructured its executive leadership team, and onboarded ex-Snap Vice President of Product Will Wu as new chief technology officer. It also made new appointments and elevated top executives to different leadership roles and streamlined its operations to focus on four key businesses – Tinder, Hinge, Asia and Evergreen, and Emerging (brands). 

Marriages in India have some of the biggest ticket sizes globally and largely see people spare no expenses. The space is largely unorganised and involves a clutch of different vendors for different activities. Within that, the online matrimony market continues to be a small fragment, accounting for $260 Mn in projected revenues at the end of 2022.