Tinder settles sexual harassment lawsuit with co-founder

Whitney Wolfe, the former co-founder and head of marketing at Tinder - a hugely popular dating app - has settled a lawsuit she filed against parent company IAC earlier this year.

“Whitney’s lawsuit against Tinder has been resolved (without admission of wrongdoing),” John Mullan, a partner at Rudy, Exelrod, Zieff & Lowe, LLP, the firm representing Wolfe, told BuzzFeed News.

“She is proud of her role as a co-founder of Tinder and of the role she played in the app’s success. She is now pleased to be able to focus her energy, talents, and ideas on exciting new opportunities.”

The suit has been settled for an undisclosed amount.

In March, Wolfe filed the complaint alleging that co-founder and one-and-off former boyfriend Justin Mateen - along with the CEO Sean Rad - had subjected her to “sexist, racist, and otherwise inappropriate comments, emails, and text messages” while she was at the company.

Her suit also claimed Rad had removed her title of co-founder at the time - claiming they said five founders was “too many” and because she’s a woman - and that he apparently ignored her complaints to him about Mateen's alleged treatment of her.

READ MORE: Tinder co-founder suspended following sexual harassment lawsuit

In court documents, Wolfe included screenshots of numerous text messages allegedly sent between her and Mateen, which aimed to prove his allegedly inappropriate behaviour. Read the text messages here.

At the time, Mateen sent a memo to staff, according to TechCrunch, which stated he wished "he had done more in terms of managing what was clearly a complex situation".

Buzzfeed also reported Mateen is no longer with IAC, according to one source who declined to be identified.