Global dating brand Bumble has acquired a platform that strengthens the bond in existing relationships. The Official platform provides date ideas, mood check-ins, and other features for couples.
In an interview with Fast Company, Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd said “We’re really trying to build the entire relationship journey and take care of the entire relationship from start to finish”.
“When you say something as simple as, the world is facing a loneliness crisis . . . and we are in a really toxic state as humans, I just feel like we have such an interesting business to try and heal some of that through better relationships,” she added.
Official will remain a standalone app for now, Herd shared. However, she did add that Bumble and Official may collaborate in the future, for example for couples to seamlessly move from the dating side to the relationship side after getting together.
Since its launch in 2021, Official services more than 368,000 couples and is available in 45 countries, Bumble shared. The app has been downloaded more than 1 million times.
In addition to the acquisition of Official, Herd also told Fast Company about the developments Bumble is seeing in AI. “Our products are the rare exception of where AI just becomes a huge, huge tailwind”, she explained.
“We want to get you in real life with safe, compatible people as quickly as possible, and AI will be a huge way to do that”, the Bumble CEO predicted.