Online Personals Watch: News on the Online Dating Industry and Business

Bumble Says It's Looking to M&A to Drive Growth

TECH CRUNCH - Bumble said during its Q1 earnings call that it plans to use M&A "opportunistically" to help it better prioritize inorganic growth. Unlike its Match Group, Bumble hasn't been very active in pursuing growth via M&A. Its first acquisition was the French dating app, Fruitz, in Feb 2022, followed by an app for couples, Official, in 2023 for $10M. Now, Bumble says it will look to acquire other businesses that align with its growth goals. CEO Lidiane Jones said Bumble would consider a smaller app if it's doing something particularly innovative that Bumble could utilize in its apps or invest in.

by Sarah Perez
See full article at Tech Crunch

Mark Brooks: This is definitely a good time to acquire companies in the dating space. It's a buyer's market right now. Match Group seems less acquisitive since the cost of capital has gone up. #3 player ParshipMeet Group used to be very acquisitive, but have been quiet recently. Social Discovery Group hasn't made a move on anything in a while. So it's a good time for Bumble to level up by bringing in innovative disruptive technologies. Consider the buying-interest signal sent.

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Dating App Fruitz Is Launching in the UK

DAILY STAR - Dating app Fruitz, designed specifically for Gen Z (ages 18-25), has launched in the UK. The platform encourages users to utilize fruit emojis to signify their relationship intentions, promoting open conversations. Acquired by Bumble in 2022, Fruitz aligns with Bumble's mission of fostering healthy relationships. The app matches users based on their relationship status: one-night stand (peach), friends with benefits (watermelon), casual dating (grape), or looking for love (cherry). The app was initially launched in Paris in 2017 by Julian Kabab (CEO), Fabrice Bascoulergue (CTO) and Arnaud Ruols (CFO).

by Katie-Ann Gupwell
See full article at Daily Star

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Bumble Stock Falls as CEO and Blackstone Plan to Sell Shares

BUSINESSWIRE - Bumble, the parent company of Bumble, Badoo, and Fruitz, has announced that some of its shareholders will sell 12.5M shares of the company's Class A common stock to the public. The selling shareholders are affiliated with Blackstone, a private equity firm, and Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder of Bumble. Bumble itself will not be selling any shares in this offering and will not receive any of the money from the sale. Bumble shares declined more than 7% today following this announcement.

See full article at Businesswire

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Bumble Q4 Financial Results

BUMBLE - Bumble, the parent company of Bumble, Badoo, and Fruitz, reported its Q4 and the full year 2022 results. In Q4, the total revenue increased 16.7% to $241.6M, while its Bumble App revenue grew 27.7% to $190.8M. Bumble App paying users grew 133K sequentially in Q4; added 502K paying users in FY22 compared to FY21. Badoo and other revenue declined 11.9% to $50.8M, compared to $57.6M. For the full year, Bumble's revenue increased 18.7% to $903.5M. However, the company's net loss for the year was $(114.1)M, compared to net earnings of $281.7M in 2021. The company's CFO expressed confidence in their ability to scale the business and deliver profitable growth in 2023.

See full article at Bumble website

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Bumble's First Acquisition Raises 3 Red Flags

THE MOTLEY FOOL - Bumble recently agreed to buy Fruitz, a French dating app that lets its users express their intentions with four fruit-based metaphors: cherries, grapes, watermelons, and peaches. On the surface, Bumble's acquisition makes sense. It only operates two main apps, Bumble and Badoo. However, the deal also raises three red flags about Bumble that can't be ignored.

1. Bumble needed to buy more growth
   Bumble ended Q3 of 2021 with 2.89M paying users across its two main apps, which represented 5% YOY growth. By comparison, Match's paying users rose 16% YOY to 16.3M.
2. Fruitz probably won't add many paid users
   Fruitz has been downloaded ~5.6M times globally for iOS and Android devices, according to Sensor Tower. And we don't know how many paid users it actually has.
3. Selling Badoo makes more sense
   Bumble generated more than twice as much average revenue per paying user than Badoo. Instead of acquiring another European-oriented app to offset Badoo's slowdown, it would have arguably made more sense to sell Badoo and reinvest that cash into Bumble's overseas expansion.

by Leo Sun
See full article at The Motley Fool

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Bumble Acquires French Gen Z Dating App, Fruitz

TECH CRUNCH - Bumble is adding the fast-growing French dating app Fruitz to its family of apps. Deal terms were not being disclosed. The quirky app Fruitz assigns a fruit to each particular kind of relationship type, ranging from those who want long-term commitments to those in search of one-night action. This allows users to filter out those who aren't on the same page as them. It also prompts users to answer questions that serve ice breakers before messaging their match. Fruitz was co-founded by Julian Kabab (CEO), Fabrice Bascoulergue (CTO), and Arnaud Ruols (CFO) and initially launched in France in Feb, 2017. To date, Fruitz has been downloaded 5.6M times globally across the App Store and Google Play, according to Sensor Tower. As of Feb. 3, 2022, the app was ranked No. 4 on the iPhone's top free charts in the "Lifestyle" category in its home market of France.

by Sarah Perez
See full article at Tech Crunch

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