• Growth has slowed in online dating, and revenue fell last year
  • Shares have fallen sharply as competition intensifies

NEW YORK, June 25 (Reuters) - Dating app Bumble BMBL.O is exploring a sale amid slowing growth in the online dating sector, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The company, which gained recognition as one of the first major platforms to require women to initiate contact, is working with investment bankers at Morgan Stanley MS.N on a potential sale process, the sources said, requesting anonymity because the discussions are private.

Sources cautioned that no deal is certain and the company may decide to stay independent.

Bumble did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Morgan Stanley and asset manager Blackstone, which owns about 22% of Bumble according to LSEG data, declined to comment.

Shares of Bumble, based in Austin, Texas, have fallen 48% over the past 12 months, leaving it with a market value of $388 million. Whitney Wolfe Herd, a co-founder of Tinder, founded Bumble in 2014 and built its brand around a "women-first" approach to online dating. Wolfe Herd, the youngest woman to take a company public in the United States when Bumble debuted in 2021, returned as chief executive in March 2025 after previously stepping down as CEO in 2023.

Blackstone acquired a majority stake in MagicLab, Bumble's parent company, in 2019 in a deal valuing the business at about $3 billion. MagicLab was later renamed Bumble Inc. and went public in February 2021 at a valuation exceeding $7 billion. Blackstone affiliates sold $28.2 million of Bumble shares this month.