What is Justin Mateen's net worth?
Justin Mateen is an American entrepreneur who has a net worth of $400 million. Justin Mateen earned his first fortune as a co-founder of Tinder. He has gone on to invest in a wide range of additional companies through his private investment fund, Jam. Some of his other investments include Home Chef, Lendup, Munchery, StyleSeat, Hyperloop One, Alto, Camelot.AI, Cargomatic, Daily Harvest, Ollie, and Zenefits.
Early Life
Justin Mateen was born in Beverly Hills, California, on March 31, 1986. He comes from a wealthy real estate family. Justin's father, Kamyar Mateen, runs Cannon Commercial Inc., which owns an extremely valuable portfolio of commercial, retail, and multi-home properties. In 2002, Kamyar paid $4.6 million for a home in Beverly Hills. Today, this home is worth around $13 million.
Tinder
Justin graduated from the USC Marshall School of Business in 2008.
Tinder emerged from a startup incubator called Hatch Labs in 2012. It was founded as a joint venture with Interactive Corp (IAC). Tinder's founders are Sean Rad, Jonathan Badeen, Justin Mateen, Joe Munoz, Dinesh Moorjani, and Whitney Wolfe. The app was initially launched at the University of Southern California, targeting college students through word-of-mouth marketing at campus parties and Greek life events.
The app's innovative "swipe" mechanic, conceived by Badeen and developed by Munoz, revolutionized online dating by gamifying the experience. Users could swipe right to like potential matches and left to pass, with matches occurring only when both users swiped right on each other. This simple but addictive interface helped drive rapid adoption among young users.
By early 2013, Tinder had gained significant traction on college campuses and began expanding beyond its initial market. The app's growth was explosive, reaching one billion swipes per day by the end of 2013. The company operated under IAC/InterActiveCorp's Match Group division from its early days, with IAC having majority ownership of Hatch Labs.
In March 2014 IAC increased its majority stake in Tinder at a valuation that was estimated at $1 billion for the first time. A year later Bank of America estimated the value of Tinder at $3 billion. By 2018 the company was generating over $800 million in annual revenue.
However, the company faced controversy in 2014 when co-founder Whitney Wolfe Herd left and filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Tinder and CMO Mateen, a former boyfriend. The case was settled out of court, and Wolfe went on to found competing dating app Bumble.
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In 2015, Sean Rad stepped down as CEO but returned to the position later that year. The same year, Tinder introduced its premium subscription service, Tinder Plus, adding features like unlimited likes and the ability to change location.
Match Group, which owns other dating platforms like Match.com and OkCupid, completed its acquisition of Tinder in July 2017. The deal valued Tinder at around $3 billion.
In 2018, Justin and another Tinder co-founder, Sean Rad, sued IAC for $2 billion, alleging that the company undervalued their options in previous financing rounds. They alleged that roughly 20 early employees who owned 20% of the company were bought out at a valuation of $3 billion when IAC supposedly knew the true valuation was closer to $5 billion. In December 2021, Match agreed to pay Sean Rad, Justin Matten, and Jonathan Badeen a combined settlement of $441 million.
Tinder has since grown into one of the world's most popular dating apps, with millions of users globally. It continues to be a significant revenue generator for Match Group through its premium subscription tiers and in-app purchases.
Real Estate
In February 2017, Justin paid $15 million for a mansion in LA's Holmby Hills neighborhood. In July 2020, Justin paid $18 million for Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli's Bel-Air home. Loughlin and Giannulli had been seeking more than $35 million for the home at one point. They bought the property in 2015 for $14 million and proceeded to spend untold millions on upgrades.
