Lex, a social and dating app for the LGBTQ+ community, has been acquired by 9count, a mobile app conglomerate focusing on social networks.
Lex started as an Instagram page in 2017, which was inspired by vintage lesbian personal ads. The page became so popular that founder Kell Rakowski spun it into an app in 2019. In less than a year, the app raised a $1.5 million seed round, and seasoned entrepreneur Jennifer Lewis joined as a co-founder and CEO.
“Mainstream social platforms really don’t serve this audience,” Lewis told TechCrunch. According to GLAAD, LGBTQ+ people are twice as likely to experience harassment online, which makes intentional online spaces for queer people more necessary. “What I’m passionate about at Lex is building a social platform where users can meet people like them, but also have a safe space where they can fully express their identity.”
Lex’s users have high standards for the app, since it serves a community that has been historically overlooked and mistreated by mainstream social platforms. Last year, the app rebranded to emphasize general socialization over dating and hookups, which made some users worried that Lex was becoming too sanitized. As one user told TechCrunch at the time, “There’s no need to encourage ‘social’ use unless you’re trying to discourse other uses (i.e., sex).”
As Lex joins 9count, users may be concerned about further change to the app. But Lewis says this move will enable Lex to ship new features more quickly and increase its content moderation capacity. “We’re able to ship new features probably like three times the rate of before the acquisition,” she said.
9count is led by Alex Hofmann, who formerly served as CEO of Musical.ly, the app that was acquired by ByteDance and became TikTok. The conglomerate’s most popular app is Wink, another dating and friendship app, but it also operates other apps like Summer, a dating app.
Given his experience with ByteDance, which owns several apps under one corporate umbrella, Hofmann wants 9count to echo that strategy. “We had our first conversation and immediately realized we really share the same vision,” Hofmann said. “The vision is essentially that we believe the future of social media is not in, you know, building this one big product, chasing billions of users with ads, and we believe the future is vertical social networks that empower communities.”
According to Lex, the app has been downloaded over a million times, which is low compared to more-mainstream dating apps — however, Lex is targeting a smaller audience, and users send millions of messages per month. Hofmann and Lewis declined to disclose the terms of the deal.