(Reuters) – Bumble Inc. CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd’s stake in the female-centric dating app operator was worth nearly $ 2 billion as shares rose for a second consecutive day following a major debut Thursday.
Bumble, backed by Blackstone Group Inc., was valued at $ 15.69 billion on Friday, with its share price nearly doubling from the initial public price of $ 43 per share, highlighting the investor’s insatiable appetite for technology stocks in a vibrant US stock market .
Wolfe Herd owns 21.5 million shares in Bumble, which equates to a 11.6% stake.
Wolfe Herd, 31, with the breeding call, became the youngest female CEO ever to announce a company when she rang the opening bell of Bumble’s offices in Austin with her one-year-old son by her side.
The women-first approach set Bumble apart in a competitive online dating market, Wolfe Herd told Reuters on Thursday.
Bumble users pay more premium offers to have a deeper level of connectivity or a different approach to connectivity, Wolfe Herd said. He suggests that incognito mode is a popular feature for people to look at others’ profile while being anonymous.
Wolfe Herd, who earned a degree in international studies from Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences at Southern Methodist University, launched the Bumble app in 2014.
Wolfe Herd is also a co-founder of the rival app Tinder, which she later sued, claiming her co-founders subjected her to sexual harassment. Tinder parent Match Group Inc, which denies the allegations, paid about $ 1 million to settle the dispute.
Bumble’s shares rose 13.5% on Friday afternoon trading, after rising 20.6% to $ 84.8 earlier in the session.
Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Krystal Hu in New York; Edited by Anil D’Silva