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Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder and CEO of Bumble, became the youngest self-made woman millionaire in the world this week after shares of the dating app company skyrocketed during its initial public offering.
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| Ticker | Safety | Last | Alter | Alter% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BMBL | BUMBLE INC | 76.06 | +5.75 | + 8.18% |
The 31-year-old’s net worth reached $ 1.5 billion on Thursday after Bumble’s share closed at $ 70.31 a share during the first day on the public market.
By 1 p.m., Wolfe Herd’s nearly 12% stake in the company was worth $ 1.6 billion, the store reported. She owns 21.54 million shares of the company, which has a market capitalization of less than $ 8 billion.
According to Forbes’ previous estimate, the $ 1.6 billion mark is far from its previous net worth of about $ 575 million.
Aside from her newly acquired billionaire status, Wolfe Herd is also the youngest female CEO to announce a company in America, according to the outlet.
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Founder of Bumble Whitney Wolfe Herd on October 25, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Bennett Raglin / Getty Images for Fast Company)
Wolfe Herd co-founded the company about seven years ago to reinvent the dating app structure. The app, unlike its competitors, gives women the ability to ‘control the conversation’.
Some people call it a Sadie Hawkins-style dating app. More remarkably, it has also become one of America’s fastest growing dating apps since it hit the app store, reports Forbes.
The company’s success put her on the Forbes list of America’s most successful female entrepreneurs and executives in 2020. She is also a 30-year-old honoree.
However, her journey to the digital data scene did not begin with Bumble. In fact, before she started the multimillion-dollar business, she co-founded one of her biggest competitors: Tinder.
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In 2012, after graduating from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Wolfe Herd became a co-founder according to her LinkedIn account and became the vice president of marketing for Tinder.
However, Wolfe Herd left Tinder and filed a lawsuit against the company over sexual harassment. Tinder denies any wrongdoing and the case is finally settled, reports Forbes.
Shortly afterwards, in 2014, she founded Bumble, which was originally a ‘female social platform’ rather than a dating app, with the help of Andrey Andreev. Andreev is a London entrepreneur who created the dating app Badoo in 2006, reports Forbes.
In 2016, Bumble, which is still the only dating app where women take the first step, expanded its social network with Bumble For Friends to help people establish friendships. A year later, the company developed Bumble Bizz, which caters to professional networks.
Bumble also owns the dating app Badoo. Together, the apps are used in 150 countries with tens of millions of monthly subscribers, reports Forbes.
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