Feeld, a dating app that caters to ‘open-minded’ users, has seen its revenue triple over the last three years, according to corporate filings. Best known for its focus on non-monogamy, polyamory and kink, it raked in $85 million in 2025, thanks to an influx of international users with more traditional tastes.

With many people falling out of love with older dating apps like Tinder, owned by Nasdaq-listed Match Group, Feeld has become an unlikely success story. Founded by Ana Kirov and her then-partner Dimo Trifonov in 2014, the app saw revenue grow by more than 30% last year while the business made over $11.6 million in profit, according to the filings.

That’s largely thanks to international sales that jumped 26% to $74.2 million, with Mexico and Spain as its fastest-growing countries. Feeld’s president Kyle Brennan said in a statement that the app now had 14 million users and that U.S. revenue had grown by more than 38% last year. The United Kingdom grew by 10% to more than $11 million in sales.

The app’s early success came from providing a home to users with a panoply of interests that range from “polyamory, consensual non-monogamy, homo- and heteroflexibility, pansexuality, asexuality, aromanticism, voyeurism, and kink,” according to its website. The original name of the app was 3nder until August 2016, when it was hit with a trademark infringement lawsuit from Match Group.

Kirova, a Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe alum , has noted that Feeld becoming “more mainstream” in recent years has brought challenges for the app and these communities. “How do we welcome people who’ve never heard of Feeld, who don’t understand the list of sexualities and genders [or] who don’t understand what ethical non-monogamy is?” she said in a June 2025 interview with The Guardian .

It’s unclear whether Feeld’s growth stems from a change in people’s dating preferences or merely frustration with Match Group’s near-monopoly over dating apps. Match was founded by media billionaire Barry Diller’s IAC group and over the last two decades bought up almost every major dating app, including Tinder, Plenty of Fish, Hinge, OkCupid and The League. Despite this, revenue has largely stalled since the pandemic. The group reported annual revenue of $3.49 billion last year. Its share price has slumped 75% since its July 2021 peak.

Match’s CEO Spencer Rascoff told investors in March that it was working on plans to address “ dating fatigue ” among Gen Z users by pushing for better match-making and verification of users. In November, the company launched an AI-powered feature for Tinder called Chemistry which scans users’ camera rolls for clues about their tastes.

Feeld’s Brennan said that Gen Z was the fastest-growing demographic on the app, up by 65% last year. There’s also new cohort of Gen Z-focused startups that are focusing on creating connections without relying on swiping , like Known, Ditto and 222.

Match’s smaller, loss-making rival Bumble has also struggled, with its share price down 96% since its February 2021 listing. Gay dating app Grindr, meanwhile, has bucked the trend. Since its blank-check merger in 2022, it more than doubled its revenue to $440 million last year, with its share price up more than 51%.

Feeld’s growth and profitability despite the malaise afflicting its less-kinky rivals has proven a draw for venture capitalists, who are clamoring to invest in the app. The company lists an industrial park on the outskirts of Carlisle, a small city near the Scottish border, as its business address.

The app raised only a small amount of money from investors over a decade ago. Its cofounders Kirova and Trifonov, who now own 25%, and 28% of the business respectively, seem to have no interest in bringing in new outside investors. “Our profitability also allows us to remain independent and founder-owned, giving us the flexibility to invest where we believe we can deliver most value to our members,” said Brennan in a statement.

The company’s largest shareholder is now a Panama-based company called Multiple Personality Corp, which owns around 42% of Feeld. Antonio Mugica, the founder of voting-machine company Smartmatic, has been named as a director and a major shareholder of Feeld since 2015. Feeld records show that Mugica transferred his entire holding of 4.25 million shares in 2024 to an unnamed recipient. Feeld’s next annual filing showed that Multiple Personality Corp’s stake had grown by exactly 4.25 million shares, and Mugica now held no shares under his own name. Mugica did not respond to a request for comment from Forbes.

The Venezuela-born founder is best known for a $2.7 billion defamation suit against Fox News over its coverage of the 2020 election. That case is still ongoing. Smartmatic was also charged by federal prosecutors last October over allegations of money laundering relating to a bribery scheme involving government officials in the Philippines. Smartmatic said in a statement at the time it contested the claims, and the prosecution was politically motivated. The case continues.

Kirova, who was chief product officer and is now CEO of Feeld, only became a named shareholder in a corporate filing in 2024 after her cofounder Trifonov transferred her shares, according to the filings and a source familiar with the matter. Feeld declined to comment on “the personal interests of our directors.”

That change was a lucrative move for Kirova: The company has paid out $13.1 million in total dividends to its shareholders in 2025 and 2026.