Bumble makes his Wall Street debut

Bumble makes his Wall Street debut

by

Bumble, best known for its female-oriented dating app, is due to start trading on Nasdaq on Thursday under the symbol “BMBL”.

Bumble priced its shares at $ 43 on Wednesday night, above the original proposed price range of $ 28 to $ 30, signaling strong investor demand in what has proven to be a high market for tech companies recently opened.

The company was founded in 2014 by Wolfe Herd, who started his career in another dating service, Tinder. She initially decided to create a social network aimed at women before coming to the concept of a dating app aimed at women. Bumble requires women looking for heterosexual couples to take the first step, the idea that this feature would enable women to make their own choices.

The idea skyrocketed. Austin-based Bumble has become a household name even as it competes in a crowded dating app market. Now it also offers services in addition to dating, including professional networking (Bumble Bizz) and meeting new friends (Bumble BFF).

Investment firm Blackstone bought a majority stake in Bumble’s parent company of Russian billionaire Andrey Andreev in 2019. The parent company also includes Badoo, a popular digital dating service outside the United States, founded by Andreev in 2006. The business with Blackstone valued Bumble, the parent company, at $ 3 billion.

Bumble’s public offering comes on the heels of several successful technology IPOs. Airbnb and DoorDash have soared on their recent public debut and continue to trade well above their IPO prices.

Unlike many other technology companies, the majority of Bumble’s board is made up of women. At 31, Wolfe Herd will become one of the youngest tech CEOs to go public, following in the footsteps of Katrina Lake, founder and CEO of Stitch Fix, who was 34 when he saw his company through its IPO .

Sarah Kunst, managing director of early stage venture capital firm Cleo Capital and former senior consultant at Bumble, told CNN Business that Wolfe Herd’s initial public offering is a significant example for other founders who don’t fit the mold than a “technology entrepreneur” usually looks like.

Wolfe Herd’s success story runs counter to the notion that “you can only start a company with credibility if you have several prestigious degrees [and] all the right experience, “said Kunst.” She played this game on her own terms. ”

She sued Tinder, founded Bumble and now, at 30, is CEO of a $ 3 billion dating empire
Wolfe Herd has worked to differentiate his company – from publicly attacking and blocking a misogynist to banning photos with guns and flagging obscene images sent by direct messages in his app. At the end of last month, the company updated its terms and conditions to ban body shame. She also used her profile to discuss issues related to women and the digital world. In 2019, she and Bumble successfully defended a new Texas law banning digital sexual harassment.

The fact that Wolfe Herd brought Bumble to this point is significant in the greater effort to diversify venture capital and the startup ecosystem, so that men – and specifically white men – are not the only major beneficiaries and guardians.

“Whitney and the Bumble IPO is a harbinger of that future,” said Pam Kostka, CEO of All Raise, a nonprofit organization of diversity in technology. “Will there be a different type of wealth creation with this particular IPO and what will people do with that wealth?”

.Source