A dating app aimed at alternative relationships nearly doubled its revenues last year as non-monogamous, queer and kinky users helped the UK-based business expand its reach across the world.
Feeld, which was founded by an entrepreneur couple in an open relationship, has said it is “on a mission to elevate the human experience of sexuality and relationships”.
Growth in the app’s popularity in recent years, amid surging interest in non-traditional relationship structures such as polyamory, meant that last year was the first for which Feeld was large enough to file full accounts at Companies House.
They show that the company’s profits increased from £2.4m to £5.5m in the year to the end of 2023, on the back of revenues that rose from £20.7m to £39.5m.
The majority of that income is now derived from outside the UK – its registered office is on an industrial estate in Carlisle, Cumbria – with £33m of turnover coming from overseas. Feeld is available to download for free across the globe, including in the US and Australia, and charges users to access its full range of services.
The company was founded by Bulgarian-born Dimo Trifonov in 2014 after he and his partner, Ana Kirova, both of whom were living in London, discussed opening up their relationship.
Kirova has been involved in the app – which was initially named 3nder until a lawsuit from much larger rival Tinder – since its early days.
Kirova, who became Feeld’s CEO in April 2021, has led a rebranding exercise, as well as a technology upgrade that was initially beset with glitches, which the company said have now been ironed out. The app has also increasingly expanded into social events.
Companies House filings reveal a change in Feeld’s ownership structure after Kirova became a director in December 2023.
Prior to January 2024, Trifonov owned the vast majority of the shares. While he still holds the largest stake in the company, nearly half of his shares were transferred to Kirova in early 2024. This reduced Trifonov’s stake below 50%, according to filings which show that Kirova now owns nearly 24% of the business.
Prior to the transfer, accounts show that shareholders were paid a dividend of £400,000 in 2023 and £292,923 the year before. Trifonov owned slightly more than half of the stock at the time.
Kirova said: “I do not believe in growth at all costs, and we do not pursue that as a business. We listen to our members across different channels and do our best to grow Feeld in ways that support their personal journeys.
“Noting the current trends within the dating app industry, Feeld has proven that our model defies tradition and people are responding accordingly.”
The company’s growth represents a fightback since 2016, when Trifonov warned that the lawsuit from Tinder, owned by Match Group, might force him to lay off his workforce.
At the time, Trifonov accused Tinder of “loading a nuclear weapon” against his startup and pointed out that Tinder itself was preceded by the gay dating app Grindr, whose name differs only by a few letters.
Trifonov was ultimately forced to change the app’s name. The company has since grown its workforce from eight people in 2016 to more than 100.
• This article was amended on 11 September 2024 to clarify that Ana Kirova became the chief executive of Feeld in April 2021 and a director in December 2023. The company is registered in Carlisle, Cumbria, but is not “run” from there, as an earlier version of the subheading said. And its workforce has now grown to more than 100, rather than “nearly 50”.
