Bumble Inc. owns Badoo and Bumble, the world’s largest dating and connection apps with millions of users globally. In a recent move, it has announced the acquisition of Fruitz, a fast-growing dating app in Europe.
Why Fruitz?
Notably, Fruitz is the first acquisition made by Bumble Inc. to support its mission to create a world where all relationships are equitable and healthy. It is a natural fit within Bumble Inc and complements its existing portfolio of Bumble and Badoo.
Fruitz was launched in 2017 by Julian Kabab, Fabrice Bascoulergue and Arnaud Ruols. Now, it is a significant player in the dating category and has witnessed a rapid growth across France, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, and Canada. The dating app is particularly popular with Gen Z, a growing segment of online dating consumers.
The French app encourages open and honest communication of dating intentions through four playful fruit metaphors. Similar to both Bumble and Badoo, it is a freemium app. The quirky app Fruitz takes a different approach to help users find matches. It assigns a fruit to each particular kind of relationship type such as cherries, grapes, watermelons, and peaches. These distinguish the various purposes ranging from those who want long-term commitments to those in search of one-night action. It allows users to filter out those who are not on the same page as them. Also, it prompts users to answer questions that serve ice breakers before messaging their match.
“Fruitz is a brand and leadership team that I’ve been following for years,” said Whitney Wolfe Herd, Bumble Founder & CEO. “Julian, Fabrice, and Arnaud are dynamic and brilliant leaders who have built a unique product that has struck a powerful chord with consumers in France and across Europe. By plugging Fruitz into our technology and data science platform, community support, brand and growth marketing, we can accelerate Fruitz’s growth.”
Fruitz CEO, Julian Kabab said, “Bumble’s vision and product has been an inspiration to us from day one. We’re so excited with the opportunity to grow as part of Bumble Inc., and work toward empowering more healthy relationships. The idea for Fruitz came from my very first experience with dating apps which was a disaster. Simply put, the lovely person I met had a very different intention to mine. Expressing what you’re looking for is not easy because we’re fearful of being judged. As a result, no one was being honest with their intentions and everyone was wasting each other’s time.
What’s next for Fruitz?
Following the acquisition, the founders of Fruitz and its team will be stay on and leading the app within Bumble Inc. With the acquisition of Fruitz, Bumble Inc will be able to expand their product offerings in line with our focus on empowering relationships for everyone.
Founded by Whitney Wolfe Herd in 2014, Bumble Inc. will combine Fruitz’s dynamic Gen Z oriented product with its industry-leading machine learning, marketing, localisation, and safety platforms. It will include Bumble, Badoo, and Fruitz apps with more than 800 employees with key offices in Austin, London, Barcelona, Paris, and Moscow.
