Bumble, the Austin-based dating and networking app, raised $2.2 billion on Thursday when its stock debuted on the Nasdaq stock exchange at $43 a share.
The stock, traded under the symbol BMBL, soared nearly 64 percent on its first day of trading to close at $70.31.
Bumble’s Initial Public Offering also made its founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, 31, the youngest female self-made billionaire founder, according to Forbes.
“Today Bumble becomes a public company,” Wolfe herd wrote in a tweet on Twitter. “This is only possible thanks to more than 1.7 billion first moves made by brave women on our app – and the pioneering women who paved the way for us in the business world. To everyone who made today possible: Thank you.”
The Nasdaq stock market’s opening bell podium was decked out with yellow and white balloons and streamers to represent Bumble’s colors and to honor the company’s first day of trading.
Bumble, founded in 2014, operates two apps, Bumble and Badoo, and reports more than 40 million users on a monthly basis.
Bumble plans to use the proceeds from the stock sale to repay part of a loan and for general corporate purposes and to pay the expenses of going public. It also plans up to 48.5 million shares of stock to purchase or redeem stock from certain entities affiliated with Blackstone, a New York-based private equity firm that owns a majority interest in Bumble.
Bumble currently employs over 600 people in offices in Austin, Barcelona, London, and Moscow.
