Bumble Inc., the parent company of Bumble and other dating apps, announced on Monday that it would make its first acquisition by purchasing French dating app Fruitz, one of the fastest-growing dating apps in Europe — especially among Gen Z daters.
Bumble, founded in 2014 by Tinder co-founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, was designed to give women more control in the dating world by giving them the power to make the first move — eliminating the unsolicited messages that women often receive on dating platforms.
The Austin-based company went public last year, raising nearly $2.2 billion through an IPO that sold 50 million shares for $43 each. The stock was trading at $28.06 per share when the market opened Monday morning.
In addition to Bumble, its parent company Bumble Inc. owns Badoo, a dating app launched by Russian entrepreneur Andrey Andreev, who helped Wolfe Herd launch Bumble.
Wolfe Herd said in a statement that she has been watching the growth of Fruitz for some time, noting that it has been particularly popular with Gen Z users in France, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain and Canada.
“By plugging Fruitz into our technology and data science platform, community support, brand and growth marketing, we can accelerate Fruitz’s growth,” Wolfe Herd said.
Fruitz is best known for its playful use of fruit emojis to depict what type of relationship — if any — an online dater is looking for on the app. The cherry emoji tells potential suitors that you are looking to tie the knot. The grape emoji means you are open to a drink and maybe dinner. The watermelon emoji is for those looking for “fruits with benefits,” while the peach emoji is for those looking to “#GoBananas.”
The company’s CEO Julian Kabab said in a statement that the idea for Fruitz was inspired by an online dating experience with someone who had “very different” intentions than him.
“Empowering people to be honest with their intentions was our first mission,” Kabab said. “To do this, we created the fruit metaphors to give people a playful way to communicate what they want, removing the fear of judgment for both men and women.”
The founders and employees at Fruitz will continue leading the app under the new ownership. With the acquisition, Bumble Inc. will grow to more than 800 employees with key offices in Austin, London, Barcelona, Paris and Moscow.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
