(New York) – Bumble made its IPO filing public, adding fuel to rumours that it will make its US stock market debut in time for Valentine’s Day.
An IPO is a company’s first sale of stock to the public.
The female-focused dating app – which grew in popularity in the Tinder era by only allowing women to make the first move in conversations on its platform – is expected to list on the Nasdaq.
In its filing, Bumble said that it brought in $US488 million ($A634 million) in revenue in 2019, and $US376 million ($A488 million) in revenue between January 29 and September 30 last year.
The company’s two apps Bumble and Badoo currently draw 42 million users each month, with 1.1 million paying for Bumble’s premium features.
Bloomberg reported last year that the company will likely seek a valuation between $US6 billion ($A7.7 billion) and $US8 billion ($A10.3 billion). Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are working with Bumble on the IPO.
The IPO date hasn’t yet been finalised, but it will land around the lovers’ holiday, though it won’t be February 14 as Valentine’s Day falls on a weekend this year.
Bumble was founded by 31-year-old Whitney Wolfe Herd, who famously left hook-up app Tinder after accusing a male colleague of sex harassment and launched the new product in 2014 with features to give women more control over conversations with dating prospects and to keep them from being stalked and harassed.
Bumble is the latest tech company to seek to go public as Silicon Valley’s top firms look to ride the stunning recovery in the US capital markets from the coronavirus pandemic that forced a number of them to postpone their debuts. – New York Post
