Bumble jumps in debut after $2.15 billion IPO
Bumble Inc., the dating app where only women can make the first move, climbed 64% in its trading debut after its initial public offering was expanded to raise $2.15 billion.
The company’s shares opened trading at $76 in New York Thursday. The stock, which rose as much as 85% from the offer price, closed at $70.31, valuing Bumble at about $14 billion including debt, according to Bloomberg calculations.
Chief executive officer Whitney Wolfe Herd, who at 31 is the youngest woman to take a large company public in the US 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 $43 each Wednesday after marketing 45 million shares for $37 to $39 apiece. That target had been raised earlier from 34.5 million shares at $28 to $30.
When asked about the firstday share jump, Wolfe Herd said she was comfortable with the pricing and was focused on the long term.
“You are signing up for our very long road ahead of us to try and make relationships healthier and more equitable and to build a brand that resonates not just with women but makes connections better for everyone,” she said.
The Bumble app was started in 2014 by Wolfe Herd, who previously co-founded the dating app Tinder.
Private equity firm the Blackstone Group Inc. took a majority stake in Bumble’s parent company in 2019, in a transaction that valued it at $3 billion. Other investors include venture capital firms Accel, Greycroft and Bessemer Venture Partners.
Sarah Kunst, a Cleo Capital managing director who has advised Bumble on investing in other women-led startups, credits Wolfe Herd with having a vision for the brand and inspiring customers.
“The world has sort of caught up in the last few years to ‘of course women can do this,” said Kunst, noting that Bumble also showed that a multibillion-dollar technology business could be built from Austin, Texas, instead of Silicon Valley.
“This company broke a bunch of norms,” Kunst said.
For the nine months ended September 30, Bumble had a pro forma net loss of $28 million attributable to owners and shareholders on revenue of $413 million, according to its filings.
The offering was led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley and Jpmorgan Chase & Co. Bumble’s shares are trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol BMBL.
In a letter to investors, Wolfe Herd said women making the first move is a “powerful shift.”