# The Week in Dating Business: September 22 to October 1, 2026

_Match bets on intent, Blackstone keeps selling Bumble, and governments on three continents move into dating safety and matchmaking._

Source: https://highintentmedia.com/news/week-in-dating-business-2026-10-01
Author: Bill Alena
Published: 2026-10-02T20:05:00+00:00
Last updated: 2026-10-05T22:56:10.866997+00:00
Category: The Data

## Summary

Match relaunches Upward, Blackstone sells more Bumble at its lowest price yet, Congress passes a romance scam law, and Singapore builds its own dating app.

## Key takeaways

- Match relaunched Upward for marriage-minded singles.
- Blackstone sold about 4.8 million more Bumble shares at roughly $2.94.
- Congress passed the Romance Scam Prevention Act.
- Australia and Singapore moved into dating safety and verified matchmaking.
- Rivet raised a $10.5 million seed round.

Two stories about the incumbents and three about governments. Match relaunched Upward for marriage-minded singles and put a date on Tinder's recovery, while Bumble's largest outside shareholder kept selling, at its lowest price yet. In Washington, Congress sent a romance-scam warning law to the President. Australia moved dating apps into a proposed digital duty of care, and Singapore went further and built its own verified dating service for civil servants. Elsewhere, a former Tinder executive raised $10.5 million to put people back in matchmaking, and Once, the original slow-dating app, stopped calling itself a dating app at all.

Published by High Intent (High Intent Media Inc). Citation permitted with a link to the source URL above.