INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Bumble, the popular and profitable dating and networking app built around the ethos of women calling the shots on how connections get made
and developed, has made a deal for some independence of its own.Andrey Andreev, the founder of Badoo, the controversial London-based
company that owns a series of dating apps and was the main backer and builder of Bumble, is selling to Blackstone his entire stake in
MagicLab, the company that owned both Bumble and Badoo (and other dating apps), and will step away from the business
and the MagicLab group of brands and team members
Blackstone is world-class at maximizing the success of entrepreneur-led companies, which presents a tremendous opportunity
I will strive to lead the group with a continued values-based and mission-first focus, the same one that has been core to Bumble since I
founded the company five years ago
We will keep working towards our goal of recalibrating gender norms and empowering people to connect globally, and now at a much faster pace
aggregated, lifetime downloads of Bumble are about 52 million, while lifetime in-app purchase revenue is about $335 million
March 2019 was its best month ever for IAP revenue with $14.1 million, and over the past six months, Bumble has averaged 1.5 million
company.Almost exactly a year ago, Andrey Andreev had been talking about a future IPO for Badoo in the U.S., listing on Nasdaq
The bigger company at the time also included the eponymous Badoo app, which itself now has 450 million users, as well as a number of others
targeting more specific communities (for example, older people), and it was altogether expecting to make some $400 million in revenues in
2018.Within that bigger picture, Bumble was easily the high-profile jewel in the crown, especially in the high-visibility market of the
U.S., where Badoo had hoped to list.Badoo prior to that had reportedly turned down a $450 million offer for Bumble from Match (some have
(In brief: Match is the company that owns Tinder and had been locked a series of different lawsuits with Bumble: Wolfe Herd had previously
been a Tinder co-founder and left under acrimonious circumstances
Andreev had previously met Wolfe Herd and then approached her to start Bumble under his wing in the wake of that departure.)While a bold IPO
was an interesting prospect, things took a turn for the worse this summer, when an expose in Forbes painted a bleak picture of misogyny and
They have a highly talented team and strong set of platforms, including Bumble, which was built on a commitment to inclusion and female
resources to help entrepreneurs take advantage of transformational growth opportunities in order to create global industry leaders over
develop the brands and platform, and I am confident Blackstone will take MagicLab to the next level in terms of growth and expansion
My aim now is to ensure a smooth and successful transition before I embark on a new business venture in search of innovative leaders with
seems that there was more at play with a bid to extricate Bumble out of that relationship.
