Operator of a dating app by the same name Bumble Inc. (BMBL) made its debut on the United States stock markets on February 11 with the share of the company soaring more than 76% leaving Bumble with a market capitalization of $14 in its first day as a public traded company.
Shares of the company opened at $76, a price above its initial public offering price of $43 per share.
Bumble Inc. is based in Austin, Texas and the company runs two major social platforms Bumble and Badoo. Badoo has over 40 million monthly active users across the world on the other hand Bumble is the only dating site where females make the first move.
Chief executive of Bumble, Whitney Wolfe Herd says during the pandemic individuals have been pushed to meet new people and build relationships online due to movements restrictions imposed to curtail spread of the deadly virus.
“People are building meaningful relationships digitally first, and then the physical follows. This is a really phenomenal shift toward safety and engineering more accountable experiences,” said the CEO.
Wolfe Herd was a co-founder of rival dating app Tinder where she left after accusing fellow co-founders for subjecting her to sexual harassment. The parent company of Tinder Match Group Inc. (MTCH) strongly denied the allegations but paid around $1 million to settle the matter.
Bumble says it will use $2.2 billion of its IPO proceeds to settle debts, make strategic acquisitions and fund internal growth.
“Right now we’re very focused on taking the dating opportunity globally. We also hope to have the preeminent platform for meeting whoever you’re looking for, for whatever use case, in the long run,” added Wolfe Herd.
