MUMBAI, Sept. 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Bumble, the woman-first social networking app that empowers women to make the first move in dating, friendship, and professional networking, has today announced its first APAC Bumble Bizz pitch competition. The competition will award women-founded businesses across the Asia Pacific region $5,000 USD grants to help them establish their companies.
The competition will run in Australia, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, the Philippines and Singapore, the six APAC markets in which Bumble currently operates, with one winner chosen from each country.
The announcement is followed by Bumble’s major milestone of Indian women making the first move over three million times and are sending twice as many messages as women in the rest of the world. The number of women on Bumble in India has grown more than 2x faster than men since the launch.
“Innovation and creativity play a vital role in the community. For us at Bumble, this is about providing opportunities for women entrepreneurs to pitch their best ideas, and we’ll help support them by opening more pathways to success, while also encouraging them to make the first move with their business ventures,” said Priti Joshi, Vice President of Strategy at Bumble.
The grant recipients will be flown to Sydney to participate in the inaugural APAC Bumble Bizz Summit, featuring some of the world’s most inspiring women including Malini Agarwal (founder of MissMalini Entertainment).
“I am so excited to be participating in the Bizz Summit with Bumble. I know how challenging it can be to start your own business and raise capital in the early days. I am excited that women today have access to something like Bumble Bizz that can help startups make those key connections that can lead to huge opportunities,” said Agarwal.
The inaugural APAC Bumble Bizz Summit will take place in Sydney on Thursday 10 October and will be free to attend for Bumble users. Speakers include Elle Ferguson (founder of the Elle Effect tanning range, Australia), Lana Wilkinson (celebrity stylist, Australia), Lindsay Jang (founder of MISSBISH and Yardbird, Hong Kong), Liv Lo Golding (TV presenter and founder of Fitsphere, Singapore), Maggie Marilyn (fashion designer, New Zealand), Martine Ho (founder of Sunnies, Philippines), and Roxy Jacenko (founder and director of Sweaty Betty PR and Ministry of Talent, Australia).
Applications for the APAC Bumble Bizz pitch competition will open at 4:30 AM IST on Monday 16 September 2019, and close at 7:30 PM IST on Friday 27 September 2019.
Bumble is the first app of its kind to bring dating, friend-finding, and career-building to a single platform via Bumble Date, Bumble BFF and Bumble Bizz. Bumble is rooted in encouraging empowering connections, respectful conversations and meaningful interactions. Since its launch, Bumble has amassed over 66 million registered users in more than 150 countries. This has led to over 1.1 billion women-led first moves and over 4 billion messages sent worldwide.
