Bumble Co-Founder Becomes World’s Youngest Self-Made Female Billionaire Aged 31

The CEO and founder of Bumble has been crowned the world's youngest self-made woman billionaire at just 31 years old.

Whitney Wolfe Herd, who co-founded the women-empowering dating app in 2014, saw the worth in her 11.6 per cent share in Bumble shoot up when shares in the company rocketed from $43 to $76 when it was launched on the Nasdaq exchange - making her worth a staggering $1.6 billion (£1.2 billion in British Sterling).

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In addition to being the world's youngest self-made female billionaire, she is also the youngest female CEO ever to take a company public in the U.S., with Bumble following in the footsteps of Match.com's Match Group.

Whitney decided to create Bumble after she sued her previous employer, dating app Tinder for sexual harassment. Tinder denied Whitney's allegations, and the case was settled outside of court.

The app now has over five million monthly users.

What makes Bumble so distinct from the plethora of dating apps is that it puts women in control in heterosexual partnerships, with only female users being able to make first contact with matched male users. Same-sex matches can have either person make the first move.

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Speaking about why she decided to launch Bumble, Whitney previously explained that she had been left "frustrated" by archaic gender norms which are still present in dating today.

"I have experienced first-hand how unequal relationships negatively impact all areas of life," she wrote in a letter to investors ahead of Bumble being listed on Nasdaq. "I wanted to change this."

Bumble is set to become even more valuable for singletons looking for love, with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic halting physical dates for the time being. The app has been updated to reflect this, with a host of new features to make meeting people safe.

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A spokesperson for the brand told Tyla: "The pandemic has drastically changed how we connect, which is why Bumble introduced a new feature to help people navigate and communicate how they are comfortable dating: virtual only, socially-distanced, or socially-distanced with masks.

"Since vaccinations began in December, we've seen an increase in the number of people who have included the word 'vaccine' or 'vaccinated' in their Bumble profiles and we know that 2 in 3 people are already having the 'COVID conversation' before they meet."

More than one million people have used Bumble's new feature globally, to communicate how they want to date. In the UK, before meeting 2 in 3 (63%) people had a conversation with their dates about the venue, mask wearing and physical contact, with 80% of people saying that this helped get to know their date better and feel safer.

Topics: Life News, Dating, Money, Life, Sex & Relationships

Kimberley Bond

Kim is a journalist at Tyla, and has previously worked at the Evening Standard, Radio Times as well as several national newspapers. A showbiz obsessive and a television fanatic, Kim is particularly interested in celebrity gossip, A-list events and the latest releases on either the big or small screen. Contact her at [email protected]

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