Bumble Inc

Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd

Over the last four years, Bumble has conquering dating, friendship, and business networking. Now the buzzy company has set its sights on a new arena: startup investments.

Bumble Fund is a new venture focused on early-stage investments for female-founded and female-led businesses. The fund will invest amounts ranging from $5,000 to $250,000 in companies that primarily serve women and are spearheaded by female leaders from diverse backgrounds.

“Investing in and empowering women in business is something that our founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd is deeply passionate about and is at the very core of what Bumble stands for,” said Sarah Jones Simmer, Bumble COO, who will lead Bumble Fund’s investment strategy alongside Bumble Senior Advisor, Sarah Kunst. “Through Bumble Fund we’ll look not only to support those women leaders who have been largely ignored, but we’ll also demonstrate why those investments build smart, successful businesses.”

As one of the only female CEOs of a publicly-traded tech company, Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg was certain to make headlines. But even Ginsberg herself could not have predicted how dramatic her first year in the role would be.

In March, the company filed a patent infringement lawsuit against competitor Bumble in Texas. The suit accused Bumble of stealing trade secrets and infringing on two patents held by Tinder, a Match Group-owned company. Bumble responded with an acerbic full page ad in the New York Times admonishing Match Group for its “scare tactics,” “endless games”, and the “assumption that a baseless lawsuit would intimidate [Bumble].”

The story blew up, quickly becoming the legal scandal heard round the dating world. It was only Ginsberg’s second month as CEO.

In the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February, Bumble took a swift stand against gun violence. The company announced via Instagram that images featuring firearms and other deadly weapons would no longer be permitted on its platforms.

“We were founded with safety, respect and kindness in mind,” states the post caption. “As mass shootings continue to devastate communities across the country, it’s time to state unequivocally that gun violence is not in line with our values, nor do these weapons belong on Bumble.”

Bumble hired a team of 5000 moderators to enforce the ban and donated $100,000 to support March For Our Lives.

This week, Match Group announced it has acquired dating app Hinge. According to the press release, the deal gives Match Group a 51 percent stake in the company. Match first started buying shares in Sept of 2017 and has the option to buy remaining shares of Hinge within the next year.

Hinge has spent the last few years revamping its image and features, creating an app that countered Tinder’s hook-up reputation, and aimed to create a space for more serious daters. This included dumping its initial Tinder-like swiping feature and allowing clients to build profiles more like traditional online dating sites. Interestingly, Match Group (which owns Tinder) initially invested in Hinge in the fall of 2017, soon after it debuted its new design.

Hinge is most popular among “urban, educated millennial women looking for relationships,” according to Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg. It has also grown its user base to “five times what it was a year ago,” according to an article in The Wall Street Journal, making it an attractive purchase for Match Group.

Dating app Badoo, which boasts a record 388 million users, has announced that it will be dropping the swiping feature from its dating app. The company plans to replace swiping with a new feature called Badoo Live which features live video.

According to TechCrunch, Badoo received feedback from users that they were getting tired of swiping, and were looking for a “more authentic” way to online date. The company wanted users to be able to get a better glimpse of potential matches before making decisions to meet, and thought the best way to do this would be through video.

Badoo Live will be similar to Facebook Live, in that users will be able to message their matches while recording their own live video, offering instant interaction to build connection. People can also watch video in playback mode, also similar to Facebook Live. Badoo will also offer a “Badoo Live” tab that users can click on to see any live videos happening that moment.

Singles in Europe and New Zealand just got a leg up in the romance game. Jdate, ChristianMingle, and Bumble - three of the biggest names in online dating - recently announced plans to expand their services abroad.

Spark Networks, parent company of Jdate and ChristianMingle, recently extended their services, languages, and local market support throughout Europe. Jdate is now available in German and Spanish, as well as English, Hebrew, and French. ChristianMingle is now available in French, Spanish, and German in addition to English. Both platforms will roll out Polish and Russian language support in the next few months.

Spark Networks attributes the expansions to user demand and says they are part of a broader initiative to further enable the global Jewish and Christian communities to try connect, communicate and find partners in their native language.