Whitney Wolfe Herd, CEO of Bumble, has joined the growing billionaire class in the tech industry after the explosive initial public offering of her dating app.
Bumble’s share price rose 63 percent on Thursday to $ 70.31, making it the latest technical darling to rise on the first day of trading.
Wolfe Herd, who founded Bumble in 2014, owns about 21.5 million shares in the company that were worth more than $ 1.5 billion at Thursday’s closing price.
The value of her approximately 12 percent stake has made Wolfe Herd, 31, according to Forbes, the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire. Her fortune could grow further on Friday – Bumble shares rose by about 4.7 percent to $ 73.60 from 8:56 a.m.
Bumble – whose largest shareholder is the private equity firm Blackstone – closed its first trading day well above the $ 43-a share price it set for the $ 2.2 billion exchange.
The Austin-based company is the latest in a series of large technology companies to capitalize on a hot IPO market. Holiday giant Airbnb more than doubled its share price in its debut in December after DoorDash shares jumped 92 percent on their first trading day.
Wolfe Herd started Bumble after divorcing Tinder, who was his co-founder and eventually sued for sexual harassment. According to Forbes, Tinder denied any wrongdoing and the case was later settled.
Like Tinder, Bumble is free to use, but it makes money through premium subscriptions and in-app purchases. The feature of the app is that only women can start chatting with men. (If you are looking for a same-sex match, any person can reach out first.)
Bumble’s market value of $ 7.7 billion makes it much smaller than Tinder owner Match Group, which is worth about $ 46 billion.