Exclusive-Bumble dating app explores sale, sources say

By Milana Vinn

NEW YORK, June 25 (Reuters) - Dating app Bumble is exploring a merchantability amid slowing maturation successful the online dating sector, according to 3 radical acquainted with the matter.

The company, ‌which gained designation arsenic 1 of the archetypal large platforms to necessitate women to initiate contact, ‌is moving with concern bankers astatine Morgan Stanley connected a imaginable merchantability process, the sources said, requesting anonymity due to the fact that the discussions are private.

Sources ​cautioned that nary woody is definite and the institution whitethorn determine to enactment independent.

Bumble did not instantly respond to a petition for comment. Morgan Stanley and plus manager Blackstone, which owns astir 22% of Bumble according to LSEG data, declined to comment.

Shares of Bumble, based successful Austin, Texas, person fallen 48% implicit the past 12 months, leaving it ‌with a marketplace worth of $388 million. Whitney ⁠Wolfe Herd, a co-founder of Tinder, founded Bumble successful 2014 and built its marque astir a "women-first" attack to online dating. Wolfe Herd, the youngest pistillate to instrumentality a institution ⁠public successful the United States erstwhile Bumble debuted successful 2021, returned arsenic main enforcement successful March 2025 aft antecedently stepping down arsenic CEO successful 2023.

Blackstone acquired a bulk involvement successful MagicLab, Bumble's genitor company, successful 2019 successful a woody valuing ​the ​business astatine astir $3 billion. MagicLab was aboriginal renamed Bumble Inc. ​and went nationalist successful February 2021 astatine ‌a valuation exceeding $7 billion. Blackstone affiliates sold $28.2 cardinal of Bumble shares this month.

PAYING USERS DECLINE

The institution has struggled with slowing maturation and declining users. Total paying users fell much than 11% successful the afloat twelvemonth 2025 to astir 3.7 million, portion yearly gross declined astir 10% to astir $966 million. In the archetypal 4th of 2026, paying users dropped by astir 20% year-on-year arsenic the institution trimmed lower-engagement accounts.

Larger rival Match Group has besides faced slowing ‌growth, but has accrued its marketplace worth by astir 12% ​over the past year.

Bumble has sought to offset the driblet successful ​users by raising prices and improving monetization, with ​average gross per paying idiosyncratic rising modestly. Still, analysts accidental the institution faces mounting ‌competition, shifting idiosyncratic preferences and broader fatigue with ​dating apps, peculiarly among younger ​users.

The company's "Built for Women, Better for Everyone" motto, which defined its women-first brand, was erstwhile a cardinal competitory vantage but analysts progressively presumption it arsenic little distinctive, with idiosyncratic behaviour shifting successful the online ​dating sector.

Bumble has expanded beyond dating ‌with offerings specified arsenic Bumble For Friends, a societal networking feature, and Bumble Bizz, which focuses ​on nonrecreational connections, but those products stay tiny parts of its business.

(Reporting by Milana Vinn successful ​New York; editing by Colin Barr and Rod Nickel)