Bumble’s Whitney Wolfe Herd becomes queen of dating apps with new CEO role

Whitney Wolfe Herd is now CEO of Magic Lab, which encompasses dating apps Bumble, Lumen, Chappy and Badoo (Picture: Photo by Lars Niki/Getty Images for Diane von Furstenberg)

After conquering the dating app market with women-first Bumble, Whitney Wolfe Herd is a force to be reckoned with in the social apps space.

She’s taken on LinkedIn with Bumble Bizz, and Facebook with Bumble BFF, as well as campaigned to end unwanted dick pics through a combination of legislation and facial recognition tech.

Now, Wolfe Herd has a new role as the CEO of MagicLab, the parent company of Bumble and other dating apps, including Badoo, Chappy and Lumen, taking over from current CEO Andrey Andreev after he sold a majority stake in the company to private equity group Blackstone.

Blackstone is putting in a “multibillion-dollar investment” into MagicLab according to the Wall Street Journal, which values the company at $3 billion (£2.6 billion). Wolfe Herd negotiated this deal while eight months pregnant and it may be the largest transaction involving a solo woman founder, according to the newsletter Femstreet.

In a statement, Wolfe Herd said: “I am honoured to take on the role of CEO of the group. 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 five years ago.”

Whilst Bumble initially started life as a dating app, allowing women to send the first message, it has grown to over 72 million registered users in places including the UK, US, Australia and India, and is ranked the second-biggest dating app in the world in terms of global consumer spend. It counts Serena Williams as its global adviser and actor Priyanka Chopra invested in the service in 2018.

Wolfe Herd with Serena Williams, Bumble's global advisor (REUTERS)

Following the Blackstone investment, there are plans to expand Bumble into more territories and continue to focus on non-dating experiences in the app as well as through social meet ups. There may be plans for MagicLab to go public in the future, something Andreev has hinted at for a while.

Taking to Instagram, Andreev announced the sale of MagicLab to Blackstone. “I am departing MagicLab to do what I love doing most - building something BIG,” he said. “Stay tuned.”