Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd joined the growing multimillion-dollar technology industry class after the explosive initial public offering of its dating app.
Bumble’s stock price rose 63 percent to $ 70.31 on the firm’s debut Thursday, making it the latest beloved technology that shot up its first day of trading.
Wolfe Herd, who founded Bumble in 2014, owns about 21.5 million shares of the company that were worth more than $ 1.5 billion at Thursday’s closing price.
The value of her approximately 12% stake made Wolfe Herd, 31, the youngest billionaire in the world, according to Forbes. His fortune could grow even higher on Friday: Bumble shares rose about 4.7 percent, to $ 73.60, at 8:56 p.m.
Bumble, whose main shareholder is private equity firm Blackstone, closed its first trading day well above the $ 43-per-share price it had set for the $ 2.2 million IPO. .
The Austin-based company is the latest in a series of large technology companies to capitalize on a hot IPO market. Holiday rental giant Airbnb saw its stock price more than double in its debut in December after DoorDash shares jumped to 92 percent on the first day of trading.
Wolfe Herd started Bumble after separating from Tinder, which he co-founded and eventually sued for sexual harassment. Tinder denied any crime and the case was later settled, according to Forbes.
Like Tinder, Bumble is free to use, but makes money through premium subscriptions and in-app purchases. The defining feature of the app is that only women can start chatting with male partners. (If you are looking for a same-sex match, either person can contact you first).
Bumble’s market value of $ 7.7 billion makes it much smaller than the owner of Tinder Match Group, which is worth approximately $ 46 billion.