Bumble Makes $13 Billion in Stock Market Debut

Bumble Founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd became a billionaire this week after Bumble made its stock market debut on February 10^th.

The company offered shares initially at $43 a piece (up from its proposed initial amount of $28 to $30 per share), valuing the female-focused dating app conglomerate at over $8 billion. Shares surged immediately, trading at more than $76 each, making the firm worth $13 billion by the end of the day, according to CNN.

Bumble is one of the most high-profile IPOs in the tech industry this year, and its 31 year-old founder is an anomaly among tech CEOs as CNN points out – she doesn’t come from a STEM background, she didn’t raise billions in venture capital, but now she is a young female billionaire.

Herd is one of the youngest female CEOs in tech to take her company public. Another notable example was Katrina Lake who founded Stitch Fix, who was 34 when the company made its stock market debut.

Led by Herd’s mission, Bumble has made a name for itself by aiming to empower women through its apps, from dating on the original app to networking on Bumble Bizz and Bumble BFF. Women make the first move in all areas of the platform. She is also working to make online dating safer and more equitable, with moves like banning body shaming, flagging lewd images, and banning photos of guns in profiles. In 2019 she led the company to fight for a new law in Texas that would outlaw digital sexual harassment - and won. Now the company is trying to advocate for this law in other states.

"You don't have to be one type of person to find success in the business world or in the tech industry," Wolfe Herd told CNN Business. "I've truly just always tried to build what I wish existed, what I wish could help make lives better for the women I care about and the people I love, and I think it doesn't always have to follow the same path."

Herd got her start at Tinder, but later sued one of the company’s founders Justin Mateen for sexual harassment. She went on to found Bumble, with a mission from the start to create a safe space for women to date and network. She wanted the app to better address the issues she saw on other apps like Tinder, where women often get predatory and lewd messages and pictures far more often than men.

Jim Cramer of CNN Money advised to invest in Bumble as a growth stock, adding to the initial buzz.