Bumble up for sale? Dating app reportedly set to go private for about $1 billion

Dating app Bumble looks set for a change of ownership, according to media reports. The Austin, Texas-based company is in advanced talks with Ithaca Holdings to be taken private in a deal valuing it at about $1 billion, Reuters reported on Monday, citing a source familiar with the matter; the Wall Street Journal had reported the plan earlier. Ithaca is a holding company for technology businesses founded by Ravi Gupta and John Hegeman. Bumble and Ithaca did not immediately comment. Bumble shares closed about 50 per cent higher at $3.80 on Monday – their biggest-ever one-day percentage gain, according to Reuters.

The potential price is well above the company's market value of less than $400 million before the reports, but far below the roughly $14 billion it was valued at when it listed in 2021. Bumble was founded in 2014 by Whitney Wolfe Herd and became known for its rule that women message first; the app has since dropped that rule. Paying users fell by more than 11 per cent in 2025 to about 3.7 million, and annual revenue by almost 10 per cent to about $966 million. In the quarter to the end of June, paying users dropped 16.4 per cent to 3.2 million.

The whole industry is under pressure as younger people in particular tire of endless swiping; larger rival Match Group (Tinder, Hinge) is grappling with this too – Tinder keeps losing paying subscribers while Hinge is growing. A new owner "will not magically fix these fundamental problems", analyst Paolo Pescatore of PP Foresight told Reuters. Artificial intelligence was "not going to be the silver bullet" either, he said; Bumble needs to give users a compelling reason to come back and pay.