Contributed by: kellyseal on Friday, February 12 2021 @ 01:08 pm
Last modified on Monday, February 15 2021 @ 08:00 am
Dating app Bumble set the terms to raise as much as $1 billion for its initial public offering. The company is expected to make its stock market debut later this month.
According to Bloomberg[*1] , Bumble plans to sell a total of 34.5 million shares for $28 to $30 per share to reach its goal. This information was disclosed earlier this week in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. If shares go for $30, Bumble would be valued at over $6 billion including debt after the listing, according to Bloomberg. This is based on the outstanding Class A shares in its listing document.
Bumble plans to list on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker BMBL, and is backed by Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase.
Whitney Wolfe Herd, the company’s founder and CEO, will own about 14% of the company’s voting shares after the IPO. Blackstone Group, a private equity firm which currently owns a majority stake in the company, will own about 83% of voting shares, according to The Street[*2] .
"While we are proud of how far we have come, having grown from a community of just a few people to an IPO, today is just day one," Wolfe-Herd said in a statement that was filed with the SEC. "This marks the start of a very bright future for Bumble Inc., one that we believe will change lives and drive great value for shareholders."
The past year has been in an interesting one for the dating app industry, with more people using these platforms than ever before in the wake of the coronavirus lockdowns. But while people are using dating apps, subscriptions in some cases have gone down, with customers opting for in-app a la carte services when they do pay.
While Bumble saw an increase in users and activity, the company had a net loss of $116.7 million for the first nine months of 2020 according to the SEC filing, compared to this time last year, when revenue was $416.6 million with $68.6 million in profits, according to The Street.
“The dating industry is highly competitive, with low switching costs and a consistent stream of new products and entrants, and innovation by our competitors may disrupt our business,” Bumble said.
Still, the dating app industry as a whole is projected to keep growing. While Facebook Dating has faltered since its launch, Match Group, which owns popular dating apps like Tinder, Hinge and OkCupid, has continued to exceed market expectations.
Bumble Inc. recently has launched an Investor Resource[*3] and mentions that they currently employ 600 plus people in offices in Austin, Barcelona, London, and Moscow.