Private equity's latest dating play has nothing to do with the apps. In November 2024, PE firm Bluestone Equity Partners made a $21 million growth investment to expand Volo Sports, an operator of a network of adult sports leagues, through acquisitions. This capital injection drove Volo's purchase of the country's second-largest social sports company, ZogSports.

Over the past decade and a half, Volo has grown from a 16-person bocce ball league in Baltimore's Federal Hill neighborhood to a sprawling, cross-country collection of youth leagues and co-ed sports teams, largely targeting young professionals in their 20s and 30s in urban areas. READ MORE