New Delhi: Online dating app Bumble Inc.’s shares have soared over 70 per cent to more than $70 on trading debut in New York, valuing the women-led company’s chief executive Whitney Wolfe Herd’s nearly 12 per cent stake at over $1.5 billion. She is now the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire.
Herd is also the youngest female CEO to take a company public in the US.
As Bumble debuted its IPO Thursday at $43 — actor Priyanka Chopra is an investor and US tennis star Serena Williams markets the app — Herd took to Twitter, saying, “Today is what happens when women make the first move. Thank you for believing in those women. Thank you for betting on those women. Thank you for being those women.”
Today, @Bumble becomes a public company. This is only possible thanks to the more than 1.7 billion first moves made by brave women on our app — and the pioneering women who paved the way for us in the business world. To everyone who made today possible: Thank you. #BumbleIPO ?? pic.twitter.com/OMLNGNvECB
— Whitney Wolfe Herd (@WhitWolfeHerd) February 11, 2021
Herd started Bumble in 2014. Before that, she was the vice-president of marketing at rival-dating site Tinder.
She left Tinder after filing a lawsuit and accusing her then boyfriend and former boss Justin Mateen of verbally harassing her and abusing, and threatening her job. She also accused Tinder of stripping her of the title of ‘co-founder’, as having a 24-year old “girl” co-founder “makes the company seem like a joke”. Tinder denied any wrongdoing and the case was confidentially settled.
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‘Feminist app’
Known across the world as a “feminist dating app”, what sets Bumble aside from other dating portals and apps is that for heterosexual matches a conversation only starts on the women’s initiative.
As of 2020, the app had more than 100 million users in 150 countries including India. Not just an app for dating, Bumble also is a platform for platonic friendships and professional communication under the verticals Bumble BFF and Bumble Bizz, respectively.
The location based-mobile application made its Asia debut in India in 2018. In an interview at the time, Herd said, “We’ve learnt that women are quite similar across the globe. They all have a voice, they all want friendship, respect, opportunity and the ability to be themselves, it’s not nuanced differently in India and America.”
Speaking about how her experience from 2014 shaped her setting up her own company, Herd said in an interview to Vogue, “What I went through in 2014 made me immune. It was like getting a huge vaccination. I just don’t care what people think about me. If I want to spray champagne, I’ll spray champagne; if I want to volunteer, I’ll volunteer. I will do what I want to do, and as long as I’m not hurting you, what does it matter?”
Bumble follows a “freemium model”, where users join and match with partners, friends and professionals on the app for free. The app gets most of its revenue from in-app purchases and different subscription offerings like Bumble Boost and Bumble Premium.
Safe app
Herd once said that when she started Bumble, “I was painfully insecure and I think every great company has a paralyzingly insecure founder at the helm because there has to be a deep-rooted desire for validation”.
It is perhaps keeping these factors in mind that in January, the company announced that it would ban those who body shame anyone. The terms said Bumble users could not use “fatphobic, ableist, racist, colourist, transphobic, homophobic and other body-shaming” related languages.
Speaking about what differentiates Bumble from others, 29-year-old media professional Ankita Bose, who has been on other apps such as Hinge and Tinder, said there were some features specific to Bumble that kept drawing her back to the app. These included the filters to distinguish between dating, friendships and professional equations.
“I found those very useful and I also like the feature that a woman does not have to reveal her name on the app. Therefore, only after matching with me can someone know my name,” Bose told ThePrint.
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