Bumble

Image: Bumble

In just five years, Bumble has become a dominant voice in the digital space. The company expanded its initial dating-focused product to become a platform for meeting friends and a tool for business networking. Outside of the app, Bumble’s numerous ventures include a startup investment fund, entertainment industry initiatives, pop-up installations and brand partnerships. Bumble has proved it is one of the most ambitious leaders in the dating industry, so few fans - or detractors - will be surprised to hear the company has yet another launch on the horizon.

Bumble’s newest endeavor is Bumble Mag, a lifestyle publication created in partnership with Hearst Magazines’ branded content studio, HearstMade. The first issue features fashion entrepreneur (and real Bumble user) Lauren Chan on the cover and 100 pages of articles about dating, careers, friendship and other topics of interest to Bumble’s 50 million-plus users.

Image: Bumble

Dating app Bumble has set its sights on partnering with prominent female leaders, including tennis champion Serena Williams. The company just announced that she will be an investor and active member of the new Bumble Fund, as well as a global ambassador for the brand.

The Bumble Fund is an investment fund started by Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd to help female entrepreneurs get support for their projects and businesses. It’s also a great way to market the company’s networking app Bumble Bizz. The Bumble Fund focuses on getting businesses started with initial funding, ranging anywhere from $5,000 to $250,000, primarily for businesses led by women of color and underrepresented groups.

Image: Adweek

Dating app Bumble repurposed a coffee shop to act as a gathering space for attendees of the famous SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. The company wanted to create a more intimate and inviting space to allow its customers to better connect, as well as to show off the capabilities of its platform.

Bumble’s headquarters are also located in Austin, and while there is traditional booth space available for companies looking to market themselves to SXSW attendees, Bumble chose a more engaging way to reach out to potential customers, according to AdWeek. They rebranded a local coffee shop in their signature yellow, providing comfy couches and tables along with a tagged wall saying: “Make the First Move.”

Not content with being one of the most well-known names in the dating space - as well as a facilitator for friendships and a growing power in the world of business networking - Bumble has set its sights on conquering the entertainment industry.

The company recently announced the return of the Female Film Force, a UK-based initiative launched last year to fund short films from aspiring women filmmakers in the UK and Ireland. The inaugural 2018 competition yielded 1,100 pitches and awarded five filmmakers (writer, directors or producers) £20,000 each to make a film embodying Bumble’s values of female empowerment, equality and kindness.

Popular dating app Bumble has launched a new filtering tool for its career networking app Bumble Bizz, which allows users to exclude men from their searches.

The new tool is a filter that can be turned on or off in the app settings. When it is activated, the filter excludes men from searches. The reason for the new tool is to help women find opportunities in careers where they’ve been traditionally underrepresented, such as the tech industry.

The idea is to help women build a strong network of contacts to support their career growth and shrink the gender gap. Bumble Bizz is often used by employers to find new hires, as well as job seekers looking for something new. This could give women more visibility in industries where they’ve traditionally been overlooked.

The dating industry remains a firm favorite for entrepreneurs who dream of founding the next breakout startup. But for many big-time investors, new dating platforms are risky ventures in a crowded market that may not be worth betting on. In honor of Valentine’s Day, Crunchbase News took a look at the relationship between startups, investors and the pursuit of finding a mate. Their status? It’s complicated.

Online dating has proved it can be an enormously profitable industry, yet despite producing impressive numbers, it often struggles to lure venture funding. “In 2018,” writes Joanna Glasner, “venture investors put $127 million globally into 27 startups categorized by Crunchbase as dating-focused. While that’s not chump change, it’s certainly tiny compared to the more than $300 billion in global venture investment across all sectors last year.”

Global venture investment in dating startups currently leans heavily toward companies based in China. Blued, a China-based dating app for gay men, received nearly 80 percent of dating-related capital in 2018. In 2017, Chinese mobile dating app Tantan received the bulk of dating investment. In 2014, Beijing-based matchmaking site Baihe raised a staggering $250 million.