Shares in Bumble rose by almost 50 per cent yesterday after reports that the dating app is in advanced takeover talks valuing the business at $1bn (£757m).
Ithaca Holdings, a technology investment firm, could announce a deal to buy the Texas-based company as early as this week, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The rise in Bumble’s shares took its stock market valuation to more than $580m. That remains far below the peak of more than $14bn the company reached after it listed on the Nasdaq in 2021.
Bumble is one of the world’s most downloaded dating apps and operates in a crowded market where growth has slowed.
It was launched in 2014 by Whitney Wolfe Herd, who was also a co-founder of Tinder.
Wolfe Herd built Bumble’s brand around a feature that allowed only women to initiate conversations with matches.
The company recently dropped that rule, prompting debate among users over whether the app had lost what set it apart from rivals.
Wolfe Herd said in August: “Today, our community is asking for more flexibility, less pressure, and more opportunities to create real, meaningful connections and that is what this new experience provides.”
Dating apps including Bumble have come under pressure in recent years as some younger users have grown disillusioned with browsing for dates, the BBC reported.
In 2025, Bumble said it would cut almost a third of its workforce as the industry grappled with what Wolfe Herd described as an “inflection point” in online dating.
Investments in other dating companies have also lost value as apps have struggled to persuade users to pay for their services.
Match Group, which owns apps including Tinder, OkCupid and Hinge, has also seen its shares fall sharply from their 2021 peak.
In the UK, a 2025 report by media regulator Ofcom found that adults were spending less time on dating apps than they had three years earlier with some single people turning instead to board game get-togethers, book clubs and other group activities in the hope of finding a partner.
Business Matters has contacted Bumble and Ithaca for comment.
