Dating app Bumble jumps in IPO debut
Bumble Inc., the dating app where only women can make the first move, climbed as much as 85 per cent in its trading debut after its initial public offering was expanded to raise us$2.15 billion.
The firm’s shares opened trading at us$40 Thursday in New york. The stock finished the day at us$70.31, up 63.5 per cent, valuing bumble at about us$15 billion including debt.
Chief executive Whitney Wolfe Herd, who at 31 is the youngest woman to take a large company public in the u.s. as CEO, said in an interview Thursday she was grateful to other women having paved the way before her. She said bumble would use the proceeds from the IPO to pay down debt and potentially pursue acquisitions.
“We’re very focused on aggressive international growth,” Wolfe Herd said.
bumble sold 50 million shares for us$43 each Wednesday after marketing 45 million shares for us$37 to us$39 apiece. That target had been raised earlier from 34.5 million shares at us$28 to us$30.
Private equity firm blackstone Group Inc. took a majority stake in bumble’s parent company in 2019, in a transaction that valued it at us$3 billion. Other investors include venture capital firms Accel, Greycroft and bessemer Venture Partners.
The bumble app was started in 2014 by Wolfe Herd, who previously co-founded the dating app Tinder.
In a letter to investors, Wolfe Herd said women making the first move is a “powerful shift.”
“Archaic gender dynamics and old-fashioned traditions still ruled the dating world,” she said. “This led to all sorts of unhealthy dynamics that ultimately disempowered women and created unnecessary pressure for men.”
For the nine months ended Sept. 30, bumble had a pro forma net loss of us$28 million on revenue of us$413 million, according to its filings.