CNBC has reported that Russian entrepreneur Andrey Andreev, owner of Badoo, may be looking to sell Bumble.
Badoo has 79% ownership of Whitney Wolfe Herd’s feminist dating platform.
Sources said Badoo has already “hired J.P. Morgan Chase to help it find a buyer”, and that any sale could value the company as high as $1.5 billion.
Match Group are the most likely buyer from within the sector, though this may not sit well with Wolfe Herd, who left Match Group’s flagship brand Tinder amid controversy.
Other investors may potentially be “non-U.S. based strategic buyers and private equity buyers”.
Bumble, which has more than doubled its user base year-on-year, is one of the most valuable businesses in dating.
Its pro-woman credentials help market the product to a generation in the midst of a gender equality movement, CNBC suggests.
It recently expanded to launch Bumble Bizz, a networking interface which uses the same swipe-based system as its dating service.
Match have so far declined to comment.
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