Relationship app maker Bumble has acquired Geneva, an internet platform constructed round creating real-life teams and golf equipment. The corporate mentioned the deal is designed to assist it broaden its focus from “one-on-one connections to teams and communities” — in different phrases, friendships.
Phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed, however the announcement got here shortly after Bumble revealed it might be making acquisitions to gasoline development, with CEO Lydian Jones (who joined Bumble from Slack final yr) noting on a current earnings name that that the corporate will take into account the “added worth” of the acquisition and the way it may match its personal enterprise targets.
“Definitely there are a whole lot of attention-grabbing know-how corporations within the business that we’re continuously taking a look at, however we’re instantly taking a look at whether or not it aligns with our long-term mission,” Jones mentioned in the course of the firm’s first-quarter earnings name this month. .
So far, Bumble has flirted sparingly with mergers and acquisitions, buying French relationship app Fruitz two years in the past and final yr pouring $10 million into Official, a relationship app.
Buddies shall be buddies
Though Bumble is greatest recognized for its relationship app, the corporate lately mentioned that friendship may change into a much bigger focus for the corporate, partly due to a broader decline in relationship apps that has led Bumble to put off 30% of its workforce. energy this yr attributable to weak wages. Bumble already has a separate buddies program designed to satisfy folks regionally, and Geneva builds on that idea.
Based in New York in 2019, Geneva is designed to satisfy like-minded folks in a particular space, whether or not it is to begin working golf equipment or meet as much as focus on the most recent books. The corporate has raised about $36 million from notable backers, together with Coatiu; Instagram founders Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom; Michael Moritz of Sequoia; and Patreon co-founder Jack Conte.
In a LinkedIn put up this morning, Jones mentioned the plan going ahead could be to “speed up our friendship product with Geneva’s highly effective know-how platform.” It seems that Geneva will ultimately be included into Bumble and Geneva will stop to function as a standalone platform, however the firm didn’t verify what is going to occur subsequent when requested by TechCrunch. In a separate message, Geneva mentioned it should proceed to assist “your present teams” and is quickly making Geneva invite-only by the transition. However it’s unclear what is going to occur to Geneva after the acquisition is accomplished, which is anticipated within the third quarter of 2024.