The popular dating app Bumble is preparing to file for an initial public offering early next year at a range of $6 billion to $8 billion, according to Bloomberg. Bumble is reportedly in conversations with banks now. The private equity group Blackstone bought a $3 billion majority stake last November in Bumble’s parent company, formerly called MagicLab and later renamed Bumble.
Andrey Andreev founded MagicLab in 2006 but stepped down last year and was replaced by Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd.
“I will strive to lead the group with a continued values-based and mission-first focus, the same one that has been core to Bumble since I founded the company,” Herd, who is also a co-founder of Tinder, said at the time.
Bumble now has a new president, Google Cloud alumnus Tariq Shaukat, and a new board of directors, including former Pixar Studios CFO Ann Mather and former CNBC CEO Pamela Thomas-Graham.
The dating app has hit 100 million users. It, and other dating apps, have seen an increase in users in recent months with the pandemic, according to Markets Insider. Bumble is known for putting the power in women’s hands, encouraging them to be the ones to send the first message to anyone they want to date, according to Fast Company. The dating app is the second-most popular dating app nationwide after Tinder.
