(Reuters) – Bumble Inc. CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd’s nearly $ 2 billion stake in women’s dating app as shares rallied for the second day in a row after a successful debut on Thursday .
Bumble, backed by Blackstone Group Inc., was valued at $ 15.69 billion on Friday, with its share price nearly doubling from its initial public offering price of $ 43 a share, underscoring investors’ unsatisfactory appetite for technology stocks on a US stock market.
Wolfe Herd owns 21.5 million shares in Bumble, equivalent to an 11.6% stake, regulatory documents said.
Wolfe Herd, 31, became the youngest female CEO to ever take on a public company while calling from Bumble’s Austin offices with her one-year-old son.
The first woman-based approach distinguished Bumble in a competitive online dating market, Wolfe Herd told Reuters on Thursday.
Bumble users are more likely to pay for premium offers to have a deeper level of connection or a different approach to the connection, Wolfe Herd said, offering incognito mode as a popular feature for people to browse other people’s profiles while they’re anonymous.
Wolfe Herd, who graduated with a degree in International Studies from the College of Humanities and Sciences of Southern Methodist University, launched the Bumble app in 2014.
Wolfe Herd is also the co-founder of rival Tinder, which she later sued, claiming that her co-founders subjected her to sexual harassment. Father Tinder Match Group Inc., which denied the allegations, paid about $ 1 million to settle the dispute.
Bumble shares rose 13.5% in afternoon trading on Friday, after rising up 20.6% to $ 84.8 earlier in the session.
Report by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Krystal Hu in New York; Montage of Anil D’Silva