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Whitney Wolfe Herd, an early VP of Marketing of Tinder, founded Bumble shortly after leaving Tinder. Wolfe Herd sued Tinder for sexual discrimination and harassment and settled for just over $1 million in September 2014. Amidst the media attention surrounding the lawsuit, acquaintance and Badoo founder and CEO Andrey Andreev contacted Wolfe Herd via email, and the two met up. Andreev suggested she get back into the dating space, and the pair eventually formed a partnership in which Andreev would receive 79% ownership in the company following an initial investment of $10 million along with additional investments and Wolfe Herd would serve as founder, CEO and 20% owner. As part of the agreement, the new company would also utilize Badoo's infrastructure and Andreev's consulting. After the partnership was established, the pair recruited fellow Tinder departees Chris Gulczynski and Sarah Mick to design the interface and help launch Bumble. Bumble was launched three months later in December 2014.The company headquarters are in Austin, Texas and as of 2021 had 650 employees globally. In March 2016, Bumble released BFF mode as a way for users to find platonic friends. After switching into the mode, the app replaces potential dates with people of the user's same sex who are also looking for friends. In June 2016, Bumble announced a partnership with Spotify that would allow users to connect a Spotify account to their profile to show their music interests. In March 2017, the company announced its plan to launch a career networking app, Bumble Bizz. In August 2017, Bumble partnered with the Anti-Defamation League in an effort to remove users who display hate symbols in their profiles. In October 2017, the company launched Bumble Bizz which also uses a woman-first interface.The company was valued at more than $1 billion in November 2017. When private equity firm The Blackstone Group purchased a majority stake in Bumble's parent company MagicLab, Bumble and its sister apps were valued at $3 billion. Bumble and its sister apps earned $162 million in net revenue for 2018.
In April 2019, Bumble launched its own lifestyle magazine called Bumble Mag.
In 2020, MagicLab was renamed Bumble as the parent company of both Bumble and Badoo. As of 2020, Bumble has over 100 million users worldwide.In February 2021, Bumble raised $2.2 billion through its IPO and the company had a valuation of over $7 billion. Bumble was listed on the Nasdaq exchange, with shares initially valued at $43 but increasing to $76 on its opening day, valuing the company at more than $13 billion.In February 2022, Bumble announced it had acquired Fruitz - a French-owned freemium dating app popular with Gen Z and used across Europe. This was the company's first acquisition. Starting from April 2022, Bumble users who report abuse are eligible for a collection of free courses from Bloom, an online provider of support for assault survivors.
