Deals, earnings, valuations and investor news from the dating business.
Match Group said Tinder DAUs grew year on year in September, though Q3 revenue fell 3% to $891M. The board declared a $0.20 per share dividend.
Match Group's Q2 2026 results showed Tinder Events in nine more cities and a 26-city target by September, as revenue slipped 1% to $853M and net income rose 36%.
Info Edge reports Q2 FY27 combined Jeevansathi and Aisle billings up 23.1%, with Aisle up 40.0%, as founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani takes over as Group CEO.
ORTEX News says Grindr short interest rose 8 points in one week, from 13.7% to 21.7%, ahead of Q3 results due on 5 November 2026.
Grindr director and 10% owner George Raymond Zage III sold 500,000 shares on 16 and 19 October under a 10b5-1 plan, about $7.06M by DII's calculation.
Bumble (BMBL) shares rose from $2.54 to $5.95 over 12-13 October, just under Ithaca Holdings' $6.05 cash offer valuing the company at $1.3B.
TechRound says Bumble's paying users fell 16.4% to 3.2M in Q2 2026 while ARPPU rose 1.2% to $21.96, as the $1.3B Ithaca Holdings take-private awaits closing.
MarketBeat's tally has Match Group at consensus Hold from 16 firms, 9 Hold and 7 Buy, with a $42.46 average target against a cited $42.40 share price.
Bleichmar Fonti & Auld, Kahn Swick & Foti and Ademi LLP opened investigations on 13-14 October into whether Bumble's $6.05-a-share sale price is fair.
Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff told NBIM's podcast Tinder's turnaround is people-led. BigGo reports a 17-point engagement rise and Events in 25 cities.
Ravi Gupta and John Hegeman become Bumble co-CEOs when the $1.3B Ithaca deal closes. Whitney Wolfe Herd, who stays CEO until then, gets no stated title.
Seven Blackstone-linked vehicles sold 2,763,510 Bumble Class A shares at $3.5423 on 13 October, but about 15.9M shares remain, not a 99.5% cut.
Bumble has agreed a $1.3B all-cash sale to Ithaca Holdings at $6.05 a share, approved by written consent from Blackstone and its founder.
Dixner has bought Paris singles party brand Crush Party and will run its events as Dixner Crush from 22 October. No price was disclosed.
Feeld's 2025 accounts show revenue up 31.5% to £64.4M and pre-tax profit of £11.4M, outpacing Match Group, Bumble and Grindr.
Grindr is buying PurposeMed, parent of telehealth provider Freddie, for $320 million, adding PrEP and STI testing to its app as Grindr Health.
Hinge is now India's second-most downloaded dating app, and Match Group plans more marketing there to chase $1 billion in Hinge revenue by 2027.
Japan's IBJ matchmaking network grew revenue 44% in six months to approximately $91 million, and says it is involved in one in 25 Japanese marriages.
Match Group aims to double Japan's revenue contribution from 5% to 10%, relying on Pairs (27% share) rather than Tinder (9%).
Once now markets itself as an 'Iconic Chat App', not a dating app, and charges Gems to message 'popular' profiles. Trustpilot rating: 1.2 out of 5.
Match Group has repositioned its Upward app for the third time in under five years, dropping the faith requirement for marriage-focused singles.
Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff expects user and subscriber declines to continue until at least 2027, as Tinder localises features across 166 countries.
ParshipMeet Group says revenue rose 5% at Parship and 25% at eharmony after it pivoted to over-40s daters and dropped its Gen Z focus.
Tantan says approximately 90% of registered participants attend its fitness events and claims female sign-ups rise by 5% the week after.
Grindr's ad revenue reached $73.6 million in 2024, up 37%, according to company disclosures, as it shifts spend into live events.
Matrimony.com claims 80% of its traffic is organic, but has not disclosed its methodology. Match Group spent $751M on sales and marketing in 2023.
Grindr generates approximately $3 million in revenue per employee, behind only Nvidia among major US tech firms, according to recent data analysis.
Blackstone has recovered roughly double its $2.1 billion Bumble investment, per Business Insider, as Bumble's market cap fell 96%.
MeetMeetNow, a Japanese dating app, has dropped messaging so users match in person at public landmarks, raising safety questions for the industry.
Chapter 2 Dating says it reached break-even in July 2025 after three months of record revenue, with marketing spend down by more than 50% year-on-year.
Meetmarket, a Berlin gay dating app not yet launched, raised €161,456 from roughly 1,300 backers in June, pitching privacy against Grindr.
Match Group is rolling out GDPR-compliant AI matchmaking and safety tools across Tinder, Hinge and its other European platforms.
EliteSingles has launched Elite Select, a $499-per-month tier with human concierge support, priority visibility and a shareable Elite Select Card.
Match Group's Q2 revenue fell 1% year-on-year but net income rose 36% to $171M, as CEO Spencer Rascoff backs Tinder Events, Sniffies and HER.
Hello Group now lists Coffee Meets Bagel's international business in its brand portfolio with no announcement, press release or regulatory filing.
EliteSingles has relaunched under SuccessfulMatch with no original members and a 40% price cut, after Spark Networks closed it in April.
Grindr is launching Edge, an AI concierge tier costing up to $499.99 per month, as only 9% of its 15 million monthly active users pay.
Tinder Thailand's 'The Real Finds The One' campaign tells Gen Z users to stop curating profiles for right-swipes, countering performative profiles.
Thursday has shut its dating app and now runs in-person mixers in 150 cities, but has not disclosed event pricing, attendance or profitability.
Former F1 driver Alex Lynn has invested £100,000 in Pacer, a London sports matching app that says it is "not a dating app" but allows for romance.
Match Group hosts an investor session on 3 September on Tinder's product changes over the past 12 to 18 months, covering culture and testing cadence.
Appflame, which runs Taimi and Hily, targets 2 million DAUs for IPO readiness, up from approximately 350,000 DAUs, without venture capital.
Wedknott has acquired Aurezia Events to move from matchmaking into wedding planning in India's $130 billion wedding market. No terms were disclosed.
Matrimony.com's net profit rose 127.5% year-on-year to ₹19.1 crore (£1.4M) in Q1 fiscal 2027, as average transaction value grew 4.2%.
Bumble has ended its women-message-first rule after twelve years and extended its messaging window from 24 to 72 hours, citing Canadian testing.
Match Group's Hinge has launched audiobooks of real couples' origin stories on Spotify and Libby, with no data linking them to retention.
Grindr's Q2 2026 revenue rose 33% to $138.1M and net income reached $17.7M, but its AI product Edge is still in limited testing.
Tinder is testing a seven-day location-based Missed Connections feature in Canada and Australia. Match Group gave no data retention details.
Bumble is developing a new model beyond the swipe and backing Plans, after adding 200,000 paying users in Q2 2026, down from 400,000.
Hinge's Justin McLeod has raised $18M for an AI matchmaking startup, while Match Group research says nearly half of US singles view AI in dating negatively.
Financial covers the money in online dating: quarterly results from Match Group (MTCH), Bumble (BMBL) and Grindr (GRND), private-company accounts filed at Companies House, mergers and acquisitions, take-privates, funding rounds and investor moves. DII reports figures from the filings themselves, gives each number its period and source, and compares companies on the same basis. Every deal also goes into DII's deals tracker.