San Francisco, Feb 7 (IANS): Popular women-first dating app Bumble on Monday said it has acquired Fruitz, one of the fastest growing dating apps in Europe, for an undisclosed sum.

This is Bumble's first acquisition and the company now has Bumble, Badoo and Fruitz dating apps in its kitty.

Since its launch in 2017, Fruitz has seen rapid growth across France, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain and Canada. The dating app is particularly popular with Gen Z, a growing segment of online dating consumers.

Fruitz was co-founded by Julian Kabab (CEO), Fabrice Bascoulergue (CTO), and Arnaud Ruols (CFO) who have led the app's growth into a significant player in the dating category.

"By plugging Fruitz into our technology and data science platform, community support, brand and growth marketing, we can accelerate Fruitz's growth," said Whitney Wolfe Herd, Bumble Founder and CEO.

The well-known French app encourages open and honest communication of dating intentions through four playful fruit metaphors - cherries, grapes, watermelons, and peaches.

Similar to both Bumble and Badoo, it is a freemium app.

Bumble said that the founders and Fruitz team will be staying on and leading the app within Bumble Inc.

"The idea for Fruitz came from my very first experience with dating apps which was a disaster. Empowering people to be honest with their intentions was our first mission. To do this, we created the fruit metaphors to give people a playful way to communicate what they want, removing the fear of judgment for both men and women, said Fruitz CEO Julian Kabab.

With this acquisition, Bumble Inc will combine Fruitz's dynamic Gen Z oriented product with its industry-leading machine learning, marketing, localisation, and safety platforms.

Bumble currently employs over 800 people in offices in Austin (the US), Barcelona, London, Paris and Moscow.