An influx of “vanilla” users helped the unconventional dating app Feeld post a jump in profits, as the company expanded its customer base beyond its original target market of people in open relationships and kink enthusiasts.
Growth outside the UK, where Feeld was founded, helped increase sales by 26% to £48.9m in 2024, according to accounts filed at Companies House.
The increase was slower than the previous year, when Feeld doubled its revenues inside 12 months.
Despite rising costs from a ramp-up in marketing activity, the increase in revenues helped the business report pre-tax profit of £9.3m compared with £6m in 2023.
Feeld was founded by the 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.
The app aimed to serve people in a similar situation by offering a more open-minded alternative to established dating apps. One of them, Tinder, took umbrage at the app’s original name, 3nder (pronounced Thrinder) and deployed legal threats to force the company to change it.
Rebranded as Feeld, the company has catered for people looking for relationships or hookups with more than one person, as well as fetishists and people with alternative gender identities.
As traditional apps have suffered a fall-off in users, Feeld has continued to grow, attracting people outside its original target market seduced by its racier image.
Earlier this year Kirova acknowledged the challenge of integrating new users with more conventional tastes – referred to as “vanilla” in the sex industry and kink community – with Feeld’s longstanding users.
“I do think it’s a challenge that it’s becoming more mainstream in some ways,” she said.
“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?”
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However, the app’s rising popularity with monogamous singles seeking steady relationships has proved lucrative for Kirova and Trifonov.
The accounts show that Feeld paid a dividend of £600,000 last year, the majority of which was paid to the pair, who own more than 50% of the company between them.
Kirova, who became Feeld’s chief executive in April 2021, has led a rebranding exercise, as well as a technology upgrade that was initially beset with glitches.
Last year, the Guardian reported that users of the app could have had sensitive data including messages, private photos and details of their sexuality accessed or even edited, after cybersecurity experts exposed a string of security “vulnerabilities”.
