Ithaca Holdings is in advanced talks to buy Bumble and take the dating app private, in a deal that would value it at about $1 billion. Reuters reported the talks, citing one source familiar with the matter.
We have not independently confirmed the report, and neither company replied when Reuters asked for comment.
Investors moved fast, and on Monday, Bumble’s shares jumped about 50% to close at $3.80, marking their biggest single-day gain since the company went public. Before this, Bumble’s market value was about $389 million as of Friday’s close.
Ithaca, an investor in tech companies, was started by Silicon Valley executives Ravi Gupta and John Hegeman.
Earlier this year, Reuters said Bumble was considering a sale because growth in online dating had slowed. Both Bumble and Match Group, which owns Tinder and Hinge, have faced challenges as younger users lose interest in swiping.
Bumble’s data highlights the pressure. In 2025, paying users fell by over 11% to about 3.7 million, and annual sales dropped nearly 10% to around $966 million. By the second quarter of 2026, paying users had fallen 16.4% to 3.2 million.
Whitney Wolfe Herd started Bumble in 2014 with the idea that only women could send the first message. When Bumble went public on the Nasdaq in 2021, it was valued at $14 billion.
After Wolfe Herd came back as CEO in March 2025, Bumble worked to bring users back. That month, it launched an AI dating assistant called Bee, which chooses matches for users instead of having them swipe.
In August, Bumble changed its main rule, allowing men to send the first message. The company also cut 30% of its staff in mid-2025.
Neither company has shared when a deal might be signed or what it would look like. If it happens, Bumble’s five years as a public company would come to an end.
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