Whitney Wolfe Herd Net Worth 2024: Bumbling Along to a $750 Million Dating Empire

Whitney Wolfe Herd, the American entrepreneur and the founder of Bumble, the online dating platform, is extraordinarily wealthy but no longer holds a billionaire status.

In 2024, Whitney Wolfe Herd’s net worth is estimated at $750 million, compared to over $1.5 billion in 2021.

Herd is a serial entrepreneur behind several dating apps. Before Bumble, she helped establish the dating app Tinder, where she previously worked as Vice President of Marketing.

Back in 2021, Wolfe Herd became the world’s youngest female billionaire when she took her business public, as well as the youngest female CEO to take a company public in the US.

Let’s find out how she became a major name in the online dating industry.

Whitney Wolfe Herd’s Net Worth: Full Breakdown

Since she took Bumble public, the company’s stock has fluctuated tremendously, constantly changing Wolfe Herd’s net worth.

This volatility and her proclivity to keep her spending and investments private make it hard to pinpoint her exact net worth.

Nevertheless, our comprehensive approach allows us to account for market fluctuations and provide a robust estimation of her current wealth.

6 Fun Facts About Whitney Wolfe Herd

1. Early Business: Co-founded the “Help Us Project” in college to aid oil spill victims.
2. Tinder Co-founder: Played a significant role in developing Tinder before founding Bumble.
3. Youngest Female CEO: Became the youngest female CEO to take a company public in the US.
4. First Business Venture: Started a bamboo tote bag business while in college.
5. Bumble’s Rapid Growth: Bumble reached over 100 million users within a few years of its launch.
6. Same-Sex Features: Innovatively allowed same-sex matches on Bumble to message first.

Latest News & Controversies

In 2024, Bumble faced backlash over its controversial anti-celibacy ad campaign, which many users felt undermined women’s freedom of choice.

The ads, featuring slogans like “A vow of celibacy is not the answer,” sparked criticism from social media users who felt the campaign was contrary to Bumble’s origins as a female-empowerment-focused platform. The company quickly pulled the ads and issued an apology, stating it unintentionally sent the wrong message.

Bumble also pledged to donate to organizations that support women and marginalized communities.

Whitney Wolfe Herd Net Worth: Early Life and Education

Whitney Wolfe Herd was born on July 5, 1989, in Salt Lake City, Utah to Kelly Wolfe, a homemaker, and Michael Wolfe, a property developer.

As a child, young Whitney attended Judge Memorial Catholic High School. After her high school graduation, she enrolled in Southern Methodist University, where she majored in international studies.

While studying at Southern Methodist University, Whitney Wolfe Herd was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and started her first business.

She spent two semesters abroad in Paris and, when she returned to Hilltop, she channeled her newfound energy toward a non-profit venture, selling bamboo tote bags to benefit areas that were affected by the BP oil spill.

Her first venture was the “Help Us Project”, which she co-founded with celebrity stylist Patrick Aufdenkamp. Aufdenkamp worked with major clients like The Kardashians and Shenae Grimes at this point.

The “Help Us Project” sold a line of organic totes and gave a portion of the proceeds to the Ocean Futures Society.

When the organization launched in 2010, it gained national media buzz, placing young Whitney Wolfe Herd in the public eye for the first time. The bags received great press after celebrities like Nicole Richie and Rachel Zoe were photographed with them.

After the success, the two partners introduced a second business called “Tender Heart”, which was a clothing line dedicated to raising awareness around fair trade and human trafficking.

The first collection featured tie-dyed designs made in Nepal. It featured only seven pieces to begin with, but since it was a success, Tender Heart was soon picked up by major retailers like Kitson and Intermix.

“You don’t hear of many clothes made in Nepal because everything is made in China these days,” Wolfe shared about the project.

Not long after, Wolfe Herd graduated from the university and started traveling across Southeast Asia, where she worked in orphanages.

Whitney Wolfe Herd Net Worth: Becoming a Dating App Kingpin

Not many people can say that they started two successful businesses before completing their education, but Whitney Wolfe is one of them. Her story started while still at university, and those around her instantly knew she would be big.

Let’s see how her story made her a billionaire – and returned her to millionaire status soon after.

Early Career

When she was 22 in 2012, Wolfe Herd joined Cardify, a startup project led by Sean Rad through Hatch Labs IAC. The project didn’t last long, but Wolfe Herd didn’t waste time and instantly landed another role – part of the development team for the dating app Tinder.

Work in Tinder

After Cardify failed, Wolfe Herd was invited to join the team for Tinder with Sean Rad and Chris Gulczynski. She became the company’s vice president of marketing and was reportedly behind the app’s name.

Before it became Tinder, the app was called MatchBox, but Wolfe Herd was inspired by the idea of tinder and the flame logo, which led to the name change.

Together with Joe Munoz, Rad had built a prototype for a dating app and worked on its development with Wolfe Herd, Justin Mateen, and Jonathan Badeen. This is why, on many occasions, Whitney Wolfe Herd was mentioned as a co-founder of Tinder, though her exact stake in the business hasn’t been disclosed.

While in her position at Tinder, Wolfe Herd fueled the popularity of the app across college campuses and helped the company grow its user base. However, in April 2014, Wolfe Herd announced that she was resigning from Tinder due to growing tensions with other company executives.

In June of that same year, she filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Tinder, and reportedly received stock and just over $1 million as part of the settlement in September 2014.

Wolfe Herd alleged that Justin Mateen and Rad, the co-founders, sexually harassed her for most of the time she was employed at the company.

She and Justin Mateen were a couple in 2013, but after their breakup, he reportedly became “verbally controlling and abusive“, forcing her to resign from the company.

Here, she tells British millionaire businessman and podcast host Steven Bartlett the story behind her exit:

Starting Fresh With a New App of Her Own: Bumble

Right after Wolfe Herd left Tinder, a wave of online hate followed, prompting her to take action and start a new venture, a female-only social network centered around compliments. Her initial idea was to call the project Merci.

Even though she wasn’t initially inspired to work in the dating industry once again, her cooperation with Andrey Andreev, Badoo’s founder, in the following months led to her developing a new female-focused dating app instead.

At this point, she planned to name the app Moxie, but the name had already been taken.

According to an interview with Business Insider in 2015, the women-led model was inspired by Sadie Hawkins’s school dances, where the women ask men to be their date.

Based on that premise, the app allowed female users to make the first contact with matched male users, not the other way around (in heterosexual matches). In the case of same-sex matches, either person can send a message first.

In late 2014, Whitney Wolfe Herd moved to Austin, Texas, and founded Bumble. Bumble became a success quickly after, and by the end of 2015, it counted over 80 million matches and 15 million conversations.

She founded the company with Andrey Andreev as the main backer, and it operated under his company Magic Lab, making Badoo its sister site.

By 2017, the female-friendly dating app had 22 million registered users.

The Sale of MagicLab

In 2019, Andreev decided to sell Bumble’s parent company MagicLab to the private equity firm Blackstone, and Wolfe Herd effectively became the CEO of MagicLab.

Andreev relinquished his stake in Bumble and its sister company Badoo as part of the deal, and Wolfe Herd received an ownership stake of 19% of the company.

She reportedly received an additional $125 million cash payout as part of the deal.

That same year, Bumble and Tinder were fighting for the number-one slot in the rate to be the most popular dating app in the US.

In 2020, Bumble took over as the parent company from MagicLab, managing both Bumble and Badoo, at a stage when Wolfe Herd’s dating app had over 100 million users from all around the world.

The next move for Wolfe Herd seemed obvious – she was going to take the company public. Aged only 31 at this point, in 2021, Whitney Wolfe Herd became the youngest woman ever to take a company public in the US, and she instantly became the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire.

Taking Bumble Public

In February 2021, Bumble topped $13 billion in valuation once Wolfe Herd took it public. When she rang the Nasdaq exchange bell, she held her 18-month-old son on her hip.

Two years later, Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd announced that she would become the executive chair of the company in January 2024. Ten years after the start of her leadership of Bumble, she stepped down from her role as a chief executive officer with Lidiane Jones stepping into the position.

During her announcement, Wolfe Herd stated that she was “passing the baton to a leader and a woman I deeply respect”.

Right after Bumble’s flotation, the shares hit a high of $75, propelling Wolfe Herd’s estimated net worth to over $1.5 billion.

However, they have since tumbled significantly, especially following the announcement that Wolfe Herd is stepping down, when they reached an all-time low of $12.77.

This caused the now executive chair of the online dating app Wolfe Herd to lose her billionaire status and go back to being a multimillionaire

Wolfe Herd reportedly has a 21% stake in the company, equaling over 21 million shares. The Herd family also told Forbes that she got $100 million from the sale of a portion of her ownership to Blackstone in 2019.

Whitney Wolfe Herd Net Worth: Other Investments and Assets

Being the co-founder of Tinder and the founder of Bumble, it was evident that Wolfe Herd’s entrepreneurial story wouldn’t be finished with her stepping down from the CEO position at her business.

She has also invested in other businesses, including a UK-based gay dating app called Chappy, co-founded by Max Cheremkin, Ollie Locke, and Jack Rogers. She didn’t co-found this business, but it was funded primarily through her and Bumble.

The app is actually inspired by Bumble, but instead of putting women in the driving seat, it is focused on making dating easier for gay men.

In addition to this investment, Wolfe Herd has millions in real estate.

Real Estate Assets

In December 2013, the young entrepreneur met oil and gas heir Michael Herd on a skiing trip in Aspen. Four years later, they married. Today, Wolfe and Michael Herd have two boys, Bobby and Henry.

The family owns one home close to the headquarters of Bumble in Austin and another property in Tyler, close to the husband’s office. Their property in Austin, which was placed on sale in 2020, was valued at $28.5 million. It is undisclosed if they still own it to date.

What Can We Learn from Wolfe Herd’s Story?

When we talk about powerful women around the world, it would be foolish to skip over Wolfe Herd, the youngest woman to ever take a business public in the US.

Over the years, Wolfe Herd has held many titles, pushing through barriers and impressing the world with her business acumen and leadership skills.

Wolfe Herd’s story is a roadmap for aspiring entrepreneurs, especially females, showing how transformative passion, networking, and resilience can be in the career world.

Her journey is a testament to how resilience can help one bounce back from setbacks and pursue their goals and dream job despite obstacles.

Despite facing a steep drop in net worth and challenges such as her departure from Tinder, Wolfe Herd’s resilience shines through.

She had experiences with sexual harassment, fought it, and then moved on to build something brilliant all on her own, showing the transformative power of immense passion and purpose in business.

Over the years, Wolfe Herd has used her experiences to create a voice and address workplace issues to foster environments of equality and respect, especially gender equality.

Finally, as the co-founder of not one but two leading dating apps, Wolfe Herd’s innovative approach to disrupting traditional industries highlights the power of innovation in reshaping industries.