Bumble Acquires French Dating app Fruitz

Bumble made its first acquisition by purchasing fast-growing French dating app Fruitz. 

Fruitz is particularly popular with younger Gen Z daters in France, and Bumble will be adding it to its suite of apps including Badoo, which is popular across Europe. Fruitz caught Bumble’s eye because of its growth among this demographic in Western Europe – including Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Netherlands in addition to France. Fruitz is also gaining ground in French-speaking Canada.

Bumble will not be rebranding Fruitz, according to Tech Crunch. It will provide the resources for Fruitz to expand and operate however, including AI technology, safety features, and marketing. Currently Fruitz is available free for download but users can purchase additional features for a cost.

According to Tech Crunch, and as the name implies, Fruitz adds a little fun to the matching process by using the names of fruits as a guide to describe what kind of relationship a user is searching for, from one-night stands to long-term commitments. For example, “watermelons” are those daters looking for “fruits with benefits” according to the app profile set-up process.

Fruitz App Screenshots

Users like how simple it is to filter out those who aren’t on the same page in terms of what they are looking for, and it also provides a different set of prompts to strike up conversations, instead of having generic conversation starters.

Co-founder and CEO Julian Kabab said the idea came from his own experience on dating apps, where intentions didn’t match up. “Expressing what you’re looking for is not easy because we’re fearful of being judged,” he said in a statement. “As a result, no one was being honest with their intentions and everyone was wasting each other’s time.”

Along with Kabab, Fabrice Bascoulergue (CTO) and Arnaud Ruols (CFO) will remain in charge, and all of the company’s current employees will remain on board, according to Tech Crunch.

Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd said in a statement: “Fruitz is a brand and leadership team that I’ve been following for years. Julian, Fabrice, and Arnaud are dynamic and brilliant leaders who have built a unique product that has struck a powerful chord with consumers in France and across Europe.” She added that by plugging the app into their technology platform, they can accelerate the app’s growth even further. 

Fruitz launched in 2017 and has been downloaded 5.6 million times over the App Store and Google Play. It’s also ranked fourth under the lifestyle category in the Apple Store in France. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.