Milestones

Dating app Bumble set the terms to raise as much as $1 billion for its initial public offering. The company is expected to make its stock market debut later this month.

According to Bloomberg, Bumble plans to sell a total of 34.5 million shares for $28 to $30 per share to reach its goal. This information was disclosed earlier this week in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. If shares go for $30, Bumble would be valued at over $6 billion including debt after the listing, according to Bloomberg. This is based on the outstanding Class A shares in its listing document.

Dating app Once, which dubs itself the “slow” dating app, has been sold to conglomerate Dating Group for $18 million in cash and stock, according to Tech Crunch.

Dating Group owns Dating.com, Dil Mil, AnastasiaDate and ChinaLove among other online dating platforms, competing directly with Bumble and Match Group’s suite of apps as well as Facebook Dating. It currently has offices in seven countries, and around 73 million users across its portfolio. Once comes with about 9 million users.

Once positioned itself as a more purpose-driven dating app, offering only one match per day to its users, who then have 24 hours to message that match to show interest, or they disappear. This offering was an intentional tactic to compete with the frenetic pace of apps like Tinder where people are inclined to swipe through dozens of profiles each minute rather than spending time really looking at each one. On the other hand, Once forced its users to consider one match at a time.

Bumble Inc. made its IPO filing public Friday January 15th, following rumors that the company would go public in time for Valentine’s Day. The app is expected to list on NASDAQ under the BMBL ticker.

According to The New York Post, Bumble reported revenue of $488.9 million in 2019, and $376.6 million in revenue between January 29 and September 30th of 2020. (Fourth quarter results have not been reported.) The pandemic has helped fuel dating app sign-ups and activity, with people using them to connect in a time of social distancing. Bumble offers an in-app video chat feature, which has been incredibly popular the last several months as people were in lockdown.

Dating app Bumble is looking to make its stock market debut in February, likely in time for Valentine’s Day, according to a report from Bloomberg who broke the news.

The female-forward dating app was rumored to be planning its IPO for 2021, but there was no date or even timeframe specified. The company is backed by investment firm Blackstone Group, and according to Bloomberg, has already confidentially filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to go public. In 2019, Blackstone acquired a majority stake in what was known as MagicLab, now rebranded as Bumble, which owns the Bumble apps and Badoo among other dating apps. At the time of the purchase, MagicLab was valued at about $3 billion.

Image: Tinder

Dating app Tinder released its annual report The Year in Swipe, and found that while the pandemic dominated the year, dating apps benefitted with an increase in subscriptions and user activity. 

While many singles were stuck at home they chose to connect virtually, with messages and swipes up by double digits compared to back in February, according to Inside Hook.

“Travel” was the most-used term this year, especially around March and April when the first lockdowns began and people had to cancel their plans. Also popular in 2020 were pandemic-related ice breakers, with many using the phrase “quarantine and chill” and discussing mask wearing habits and protocols with their matches.

BLK, a dating app specifically for black daters, has become one of the fastest-growing apps in the Match Group suite of dating apps. Match Group currently owns a substantial portion of the dating app market, including Tinder, OkCupid, Plenty of Fish and Hinge among others.

According to The Grio, during the first two weeks when COVID-19 was spreading and people were sheltering at home, BLK saw an 18% increase in daily activity. Now seven months into the pandemic, there is a 38% increase in activity month over month. BLK launched in 2017, and since has grown to over four million users.