It was not immediately clear whether Beijing Kunlun intends to take Grindr to the market in China, where attitudes towards homosexuality - long taboo in the country - are slowly changing.

Grindr founder and chief executive Joel Simkhai touted the investment as “a huge vote of confidence in our vision to connect gay men to even more of the world around them.”

Grindr opened the door for the investment to accelerate growth and improve the mobile application for its “millions of users,” according to Simkhai.

The amount invested was not disclosed. Simkhai founded Grindr with his own money and he said that this is the first time it has raised money from an outside investor.

“It will generally be business as usual for us here at Grindr, but with a renewed sense of purpose and additional resources to deliver a great product to you,” Simkhai said.

Los Angeles-based Grindr was founded in 2009 and the gay dating application - versions of which are tailored for Apple or Android devices - is reportedly used in 196 countries.

The application lets users see pictures of other users and then lets them connect by sharing locations, photos or messages and has been roundly considered to have revolutionised the world of gay relationships.

Grindr has updated its functionality since its founding, launching a premium subscription service as well as the feature Grindr Tribes, allowing users to specify Bear, Clean-cut, Daddy, Discreet, Geek, Jock, Leather, Otter, Poz, Rugged, Trans and Twink for their tastes as well as age.

Im 2014 Grindr reported it had achieved moer than 10 million downloads with more than 5 million users worldwide.