What is Whitney Wolfe Herd's net worth? Bumble's billionaire founder once sued Tinder for sexual harassment
The founder and CEO of the dating app Bumble, Whitney Wolfe Herd, was declared as the world's youngest female billionaire on February 11. The announcement was made by Forbes. Herd had launched the women-centric dating app in 2014 together with Russian billionaire Andrey Andreev. Bumble went public on February 11, following which Wolfe Herd's net worth soared to a record high. She owns an 11.6% stake in Bumble Inc.
She posted about the move on Twitter: "Today, @Bumble becomes a public company. This is only possible thanks to the 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. #BumbleIPO."
However, unknown to many, Wolfe Herd was previously employed at a high-ranking position with dating app Tinder. She had reportedly filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the company after leaving in 2014.
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Today, @Bumble becomes a public company. This is only possible thanks to the 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. #BumbleIPO 💛🐝 pic.twitter.com/OMLNGNvECB
— Whitney Wolfe Herd (@WhitWolfeHerd) February 11, 2021
Was Wolfe Herd sexually harassed at Tinder?
Herd joined Tinder's parent company Hatch Labs in 2012 at the age of 22. She was later made a part of the development team for Tinder, along with founder Sean Rad and Chris Gulczynski. In fact, she is credited for coming up with the name for the app — Tinder — which signifies the flammable material used to light a fire.
After Tinder was launched, Herd soon became the Vice-President of Marketing and helped popularize the app among the youth, thereby revolutionizing the entire concept of dating around the world. However, things were not so easy for her within the company as she was allegedly subjected to workplace sexual and verbal harassment from co-founders Sean Rad and Justin Mateen.
Herd and Mateen had dated for a while in 2013 and broke up after an on-and-off relationship. The adverse treatment towards her escalated especially after the breakup as Herd alleged that Mateen became "verbally controlling and abusive" towards her. In fact, her status as a co-founder was removed by Rad and Mateen, citing that there were already "too many" co-founders for the company.
Additionally, Mateen even went to the extent of calling her "too slutty" to be named the co-founder for a "hookup" app like Tinder, reported Business Insider. On many occasions, Herd was branded as a "slut" and "liar" by Mateen.
Unable to put up with such harassment, she was forced to resign from Tinder in 2014, following which she filed the sexual harassment lawsuit. According to Forbes, she received more than $1 million after the settlement. Afterward, Tinder CEO Sean Rad also stepped down from his position in November 2014.
What is the net worth of Whitney Wolfe Herd?
Wolfe Herd has seen unprecedented success with her own dating app Bumble, which allows women to make the first move. Bumble is now the second most popular dating app in the USA. As of February 11, Wolfe Herd's net worth stood at a staggering $1.5 billion. Bumble's stock closed at $70.31 on Thursday, February 11, reported Forbes.
Bumble Inc is currently the parent company of two dating apps — Bumble and Badoo, which together have a monthly user base of 42 million across 150 countries in the world.
In July 2019, an exclusive investigation by Forbes unearthed a culture of misogyny, drug abuse, sex and sleaze at Badoo, the sister app of Bumble managed by Russian billionaire Andrey Andreev. At that time, Herd defended her Bumble co-founder Andreev against the allegations. However, four months after the story was published, Andreev sold his stake in Bumble to Blackstone.