The 31-year-old, Whitney Wolfe Herd has become world’s youngest female billionaire

An online dating app, Bumble, catering to women and led by women has made its 31-year-old female founder, Whitney Wolfe Herd, a billionaire.

Whitney said that the Covid-19 pandemic has encouraged people to build a relationship and meet new people on their phones through the dating app where only women can make the first move.

“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 Wolfe Herd, who expects the trend to continue in a post-coronavirus world.

31-year-old Wolfe Herd has become one of the youngest female executives leading a public company.

Shares of Bumble, backed by Blackstone Group Inc, soared over 76% in their stock market debut on Thursday, fetching a $14 billion valuation for the operator of the dating app where women make the first move.

The firm’s shares opened at $76 on the Nasdaq, well above its initial public offering (IPO) price of $43 per share. Austin, Texas-based Bumble operates two major apps, Bumble and Badoo, which touts over 40 million monthly active users worldwide.

Bumble, unique among dating apps for its “women-first approach,” generates revenue mostly from premium subscriptions. The company reported $376.6 million in revenue in the first nine months of 2020, according to filings. The Bumble app had 1.1 million paying users, with 1.3 million on the Badoo app and other services.

Bumble plans to use the $2.2 billion proceeds from the IPO to pay off debt, fund international growth, and pursue acquisitions.

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