Bumble

Image: Bumble

You swiped right, you chatted, you’re ready to take the plunge and meet in person - now what? If you’re in New York City, your next step could soon be a visit to a cafe and wine bar run by Bumble. The Austin-based company will open the space, which it has named Bumble Brew, in fall 2019 in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood.

By day, Bumble Brew will be a cafe serving pastries and coffee. By night, it will transform into a wine bar serving $12 to $16 glasses of vino and a selection of small plates. Bumble intends for the 70-seat venue to be a meeting space for users of the app who are networking, on a date or meeting friends. It will also host demonstrations from female chefs, BFF parties, networking events and date nights.

Dating apps are incredibly popular, but as they saturate the U.S. market, the significant growth of the last few years is not expected to continue through 2019. Research analysts at eMarketer found that while the number of people use dating apps in the country has grown to a whopping 25 million, the market demand is starting to slow down.

According to Business Insider, apps like Tinder, Bumble and OkCupid, (all owned by Match Group), ^[1] have contributed to the growing interest in dating apps, launching new features every few months to attract new (and young) users.

Andrey Andreev, who owns popular dating apps Badoo, Bumble, Lumen and Chappy, has created a new holding company called Magic Lab.

Magic Lab seems to be positioning itself to compete directly with Match Group by offering a similar setup: a suite of diverse apps aimed at different dating markets. However, Magic Labs stated how it plans to distinguish itself in its company mission, taking aim at dating app culture overall: “The brands will focus on marketing to solve societal issues such as misogyny, stereotypes, self-doubt and ageism.”

Bumble is joining forces with Marie Claire Australia to launch the Glass Ceiling Awards, a celebration of powerful women in business who are breaking gender barriers and furthering equality in the workplace. The awards, scheduled to be held on June 19 in Sydney, will be presented in conjunction with Estée Lauder Companies.

Nominees will compete in eight prize categories for individuals and businesses:

Bumble and Serena Williams are continuing their collaboration with joint investments in two female-led companies. At Bumble’s inaugural Bumble Fund Summit in Napa, California, the company announced that Bumble Fund and Serena Ventures will back Nude Barre and Virtue Health, the winners of an in-app pitch competition run through Bumble Bizz.

Bumble Fund launched in 2018 with a mission to support female-founded and female-led businesses with early-stage investments. The fund’s first investments included a swimwear company, a prenatal and postpartum healthcare company, a beauty festival, and two other women-focused startup funds.

Image: Bumble

Starting in June, artificial intelligence will shield Bumble users from unsolicited lewd photographs sent through the app’s messaging tool. The AI feature - which has been dubbed Private Detector, as in “private parts” - will automatically blur explicit photos shared within a chat and warn the user that they’ve received an obscene image. The user can then decide if they want to view the image or block it, and if they’d like to report it to Bumble’s moderators.

“With our revolutionary AI, we are able to detect potentially inappropriate content and warn you about the image before you open it,” says a screenshot of the new feature. “We are committed to keeping you protected from unsolicited photos or offensive behavior so you can have a safe experience meeting new people on Bumble.”