The dating app Bumble debuted on Thursday on Wall Street, catapulting its CEO into billionaire status and making her one of the few women billionaires who made herself.
Bumble, the dating app that requires women in heterosexual matches to take the first step, quoted their shares at $ 43 ahead of Thursday’s trading session – higher than the original forecast of $ 28-30, CNN reported. Business. It started trading on Nasdaq under the symbol “BMBL”.
The increase was sufficient to assess CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd’s share of more than $ 900 million, bringing his overall fortune to more than $ 1 billion, according to Bloomberg News.
Wolfe Herd held her baby at the small event that marked the official launch of the app on Wall Street.
Austin, TX ➡️ Times Square, NYC.
Today, @Bumble and @Nasdaq defined the relationship. #NasdaqListed: $ BMBL pic.twitter.com/kehYpW0fSc
– Nasdaq (@Nasdaq) February 11, 2021
Wolfe Herd joins the small group of billionaire women who live alone, who reside mainly in Asia and make up less than 5% of the world’s 500 largest fortunes, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The world’s richest 500 people in 2020 earned $ 1.8 trillion, with 91% of that going to men.
She founded Bumble, based in Austin, Texas, in 2014, after leaving a job at Tinder, which she later sued for sexual harassment in a now closed case, according to Bloomberg News. Originally, she intended to create a social media platform aimed at women, but turned to a dating app.
“You don’t have to be the type of person to succeed in business or in the technology industry,” Wolfe Herd told CNN in an interview. “I really have always tried to build what I wish existed, what I wish could help make life better for the women I care about and the people I love, and I think I don’t always have to go the same way. “
Last year, the Blackstone Group bought a majority stake in Bumble, valuing the company at $ 3 billion.
Wolfe Herd, 31, has become one of the youngest female CEOs in technology to go public. A total of 559 companies went public in the United States last year, with only three, including Bumble, with founders.