Dating app Bumble agrees to £980m takeover by Ithaca Holdings in 'bet on the future of humanity'
Ithaca Holdings, founded by Sequoia partner Ravi Gupta and former Meta executive John Hegeman, plans to deploy AI across Bumble if the roughly $1 billion deal closes.
Bumble, the women-first dating app whose 2021 float made founder Whitney Wolfe Herd the world's youngest female billionaire, will go private after accepting an all-cash £980m bid from US investment firm Ithaca Holdings. Ravi Gupta and John Hegeman, who co-founded Ithaca, will take on the roles of co-chief executives at Bumble once the transaction completes, with Wolfe Herd remaining actively involved. Priced at $6.05 per share, the offer represents a 138% premium to Bumble's unaffected closing price and sent shares surging 57%.
Bumble's decline is brutal: paying users fell 16.4% to 3.2 million and revenue dropped 15% year-on-year, with the stock down 90% since its $14 billion IPO.
Gupta and Hegeman described the acquisition as 'a bet on the future of humanity', pledging to advance Bumble's mission for 'the next generation of members.'
Blackstone and Wolfe Herd have already delivered the shareholder approval required, clearing the biggest hurdle to closing the deal.
