Grindr just dropped new product updates like features for faster hookups (Right Now) and to hide users from their exes (Profile Hide), and it’s not stopping. The most well-known gay dating app has a long product roadmap for 2025, including AI-powered chat summaries that look a bit like Gmail’s.
AI is everywhere right now, including dating apps. Tinder’s incoming CEO, Spencer Rascoff, mentioned the app leaning into AI both on LinkedIn at the Wall Street Journal‘s Future of Everything conference. At the event, Grindr CEO George Arison said much of the same, following a report in the Journal last October that stated Grindr is testing an AI “wingman.”
SEE ALSO:
From Grindr to Scruff: The best dating apps for gay, bi, and queer men
What is Grindr’s A-List?
While the full-on wingman is still in testing to 10,000 users (of Grindr’s 14.5 million average monthly active users), the app is releasing AI-driven features at an increasing clip — both in beta and in full. Right Now, a feature to check who is online and available at that moment (hence “right now”) has recently launched to all Grindr users.
A feature currently in beta is A-List, a short list of best matches curated by AI. A-List also includes both profile and chat summaries with “key takeaways.” Users can also filter matches by Online, Met Up, and Contenders. The A-List beta is currently only available to around a quarter of Grindr’s Unlimited users, the more expense paid tier on Grindr at $39.99/month (XTRA is $19.99/month.)
In an interview with Mashable, Arison said that the initial reaction to A-List has been positive. Users signing up for Unlimited and reactivating it have increased, though the Grindr CEO wouldn’t say by how much.
Mashable Trend Report: Coming Soon!
On Reddit, however, the reaction to A-List is mostly negative, with multiple users complaining that it’s “useless” and that its preceding feature — favorites — was free. Grindr reiterated to Mashable that more than 70 percent of early access users reported they found A-List useful.
Even more AI on Grindr
Another Grindr feature in beta is Discover, which lets users look at profiles from around the world (as opposed to only in their area). This, along with Travel Pass (which lets you Roam a travel destination before getting there, and boost your profile) and the Explore Heatmap (which shows gay hotspots around the world), aims to help users find others on Grindr when they travel.
For You, yet another feature on the roadmap, gives users curated match choices.
Arison hinted at other features that aren’t on the extensive roadmap, too. While Right Now fits well within Grindr’s reputation as a hookup app, Arison said that, according to Grindr’s own surveys, people have other intentions on the app too, like trying to find a partner. In a survey last fall of 1,200 gay and bi men, Grindr found that around a quarter under 35 want to have kids.
Grindr intends to test more features (incorporating AI, of course) with these varying intentions in mind by the end of the year. It’s part of Grindr’s plan to be the app users spend the most time on in a sea of other options.
Last year, Mashable reported that complaints about Grindr are rising, given more paywalled features and product issues.
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![Fintech startup Parker files for bankruptcy | TechCrunch
Parker, a well-funded startup offering corporate credit cards and banking services for e-commerce businesses, has filed for bankruptcy and is widely reported to have shut down.
The startup was part of Y Combinator’s winter 2019 cohort, and its Series A was led by Valar Ventures.
Parker came out of stealth in 2023, touting a corporate credit that it said was designed for use by e-commerce companies. At the time, co-founder and CEO Yacine Sibous said the startup’s “secret sauce” was an underwriting process that could properly assess e-commerce cash flows.
“We imagined building better financial products for e-commerce founders with the mission of increasing the number of financially independent people,” Sibous told TechCrunch.
Parker’s website is still up and doesn’t mention any shutdown. Instead, a banner at the top boasts that the company has raised more than 0 million in total funding, including a 5 million lending arrangement.
However, multiple social media posts state that Parker’s credit card partner Patriot Bank sent a message to customers this week confirming the shutdown. Parker’s competitors seemed to jump on the news with their own posts seeking to lure over the startup’s former customers.
And Parker’s troubles seem to be confirmed in its May 7 filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. The filing states that the company has between million and 0 million in assets, with liabilities in the same range. It also states that Parker has between 100 and 199 creditors.
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October 13-15, 2026
Fintech consultant Jason Mikula recently claimed that Parker had been in negotiations for a potential acquisition, with the failure of those talks ultimately leading to the startup’s abrupt shutdown. Mirkula added that this “has left small business customers in a tough spot” and also raised “questions about [banking partner] Piermont’s and Patriot’s oversight of the program.”
Parker did not immediately respond to an email from TechCrunch.
The company’s CEO Sibous has not explicitly acknowledged the shutdown or bankruptcy on LinkedIn, and in a recent post, he repeated the 0 million funding figure, adding that the company had reached million in revenue. But he also said that if he started over, he’d do some things differently, such as: “Avoid over-hiring, reactive decisions, and doomsayers.”
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.#Fintech #startup #Parker #files #bankruptcy #TechCrunchParker,Valar Ventures,Y Combinator,Yacine Sibous](https://i0.wp.com/techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/tech-crunch-photo.png?resize=1200%2C674&ssl=1 "Fintech startup Parker files for bankruptcy | TechCrunch
Parker, a well-funded startup offering corporate credit cards and banking services for e-commerce businesses, has filed for bankruptcy and is widely reported to have shut down.
The startup was part of Y Combinator’s winter 2019 cohort, and its Series A was led by Valar Ventures.
Parker came out of stealth in 2023, touting a corporate credit that it said was designed for use by e-commerce companies. At the time, co-founder and CEO Yacine Sibous said the startup’s “secret sauce” was an underwriting process that could properly assess e-commerce cash flows.
“We imagined building better financial products for e-commerce founders with the mission of increasing the number of financially independent people,” Sibous told TechCrunch.
Parker’s website is still up and doesn’t mention any shutdown. Instead, a banner at the top boasts that the company has raised more than 0 million in total funding, including a 5 million lending arrangement.
However, multiple social media posts state that Parker’s credit card partner Patriot Bank sent a message to customers this week confirming the shutdown. Parker’s competitors seemed to jump on the news with their own posts seeking to lure over the startup’s former customers.
And Parker’s troubles seem to be confirmed in its May 7 filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. The filing states that the company has between million and 0 million in assets, with liabilities in the same range. It also states that Parker has between 100 and 199 creditors.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco, CA
|
October 13-15, 2026
Fintech consultant Jason Mikula recently claimed that Parker had been in negotiations for a potential acquisition, with the failure of those talks ultimately leading to the startup’s abrupt shutdown. Mirkula added that this “has left small business customers in a tough spot” and also raised “questions about [banking partner] Piermont’s and Patriot’s oversight of the program.”
Parker did not immediately respond to an email from TechCrunch.
The company’s CEO Sibous has not explicitly acknowledged the shutdown or bankruptcy on LinkedIn, and in a recent post, he repeated the 0 million funding figure, adding that the company had reached million in revenue. But he also said that if he started over, he’d do some things differently, such as: “Avoid over-hiring, reactive decisions, and doomsayers.”
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.#Fintech #startup #Parker #files #bankruptcy #TechCrunchParker,Valar Ventures,Y Combinator,Yacine Sibous")
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