WHITNEY Wolfe Herd, the founder of dating app Bumble, has become a billionaire at the age of 31. The female-led dating app was hailed as a game changer in the world of online dating when it was launched seven years ago. Who is Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd? Wolfe Herd, from Salt Lake City in […]
WHITNEY Wolfe Herd, the founder of dating app Bumble, has become a billionaire at the age of 31.
The female-led dating app was hailed as a game changer in the world of online dating when it was launched seven years ago.
Wolfe Herd, from Salt Lake City in Utah, has become one of the youngest female chief executives leading a public company.
Fluent in French, she majored in International Studies at Southern Methodist University and spent a year abroad studying at Sorbonne University in Paris.
At the age of 20, she started a business selling bamboo tote bags to raise funds for areas affected by the BP oil spill in 2010.
The non-profit, launched with celebrity stylist Patrick Aufdenkamp, was called “Help Us Project” and Nicole Richie and Rachel Zoe were pictured wearing the bags.
Wolfe Herd launched a second business with Aufdenkamp called “Second Heart” – a clothing line raising awareness of human trafficking.
After travelling to Southeast Asia to work in orphanages, Wolfe Herd joined the development team for dating app Tinder.
She was named vice president of marketing for the company.
Wolfe Herd later sued the company, alleging that her co-founders subjected her to sexual harassment.
Tinder parent Match Group Inc, which denied the allegations, paid about $1 million to settle the dispute.
She moved to Austin, Texas and founded Bumble – a female-focused dating app.
Wolfe Herd was named one of Business Insider’s 30 Most Important Women Under 30 In Tech in 2014 and one of Elle’s Women in Tech in 2016.
She was also named in Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2017 and 2018.
Wolfe Herd in Forbes’ top 100 “America’s richest self-made women” in 2020.
The Bumble boss is married to Michael Herd and the couple have one child.
The pair met on a skiing trip in 2013 and tied the knot in 2017.
Wolfe Herd’s wealth jumped from $498 million to $1.6 billion on Thursday, February 11 as her firm celebrated a successful first-day on Wall Street.
Shares soared nearly 80 per cent on their stock market debut, fetching a $14 billion valuation.
The company’s shares opened at $76 on the Nasdaq, well above its initial public offering price of $43 per share.
Wolfe Herd wrote on Twitter: “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.”
Wolfe Herd launched Bumble in 2014 with the tag line “by women, for women”.
Women have to make the first move on the dating app.
She also launched BumbleBFF, an app for finding friends, in 2016, and Bumble Bizz, a professional network app, in 2017.
Bumble operates two major dating apps, Bumble and Badoo, which touts more than 40 million monthly active users worldwide.
Bumble generates revenue mostly from premium subscriptions.
The company said it expects to record up to $541.5 million in revenue between January and December 2020, up 11 percent from the prior year driven by growth in paying customers.
“Right now we’re very focused on taking the dating opportunity globally,” Wolfe Herd said in an interview with Reuters.
“We also hope to have the preeminent platform for meeting whoever you’re looking for, for whatever use case, in the long run.”
