Ravi Gupta, co-founder and co-CEO of investment firm Ithaca Holdings, is set to lead dating app Bumble alongside John Hegeman after the firm agreed to acquire the company for $1.3 billion.
Gupta announced the deal in a post on X, saying Ithaca had spent the past six months evaluating hundreds of companies to identify businesses that could become more valuable as artificial intelligence advances. “As intelligence becomes more abundant, we believe connecting with the right person and forming meaningful relationships will become even more precious. And frontier technology can help more people find and build those relationships,” Gupta wrote. “Our purpose at Ithaca is to apply frontier technology to things that matter. We acquire enduring businesses, transform them with technology, and hold for the long term. We focus on businesses not only for their financial potential but their ability to enrich lives,” he added. Ravi Gupta is the co-founder and co-CEO of Ithaca Holdings and a partner at Sequoia Capital, a US-based venture capital firm. Based in San Francisco, California, Gupta has held several senior positions across the technology and investment sectors. Gupta holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Duke University. (Also Read: Who is Abdulrahman Alfozan, OpenAI employee caught planting a recording device in office? )
Because of its role in helping people build meaningful relationships, he said, bumble stood out.
Gupta and Hegeman will become co-chief executives of Bumble following the acquisition, according to a report by the BBC. The company’s founder and current chief executive, Whitney Wolfe Herd, has said that she will remain actively involved in the business.
Further, Gupta opened up about his grandfather’s decision to leave India for the US in 1957 in search of better opportunities for his family. Because he saw the possibility for something better,” he wrote, he was 35 and upended his whole life. Gupta has spoken about how his move to California sparked his interest in the technology industry. In his personal backstory shared on Sequoia Capital’s website, he recalled being an outsider to the sector before working hard to join Instacart. Gupta also described how his family’s approach to ambition and support influenced his professional outlook. “He left five kids and my grandmother. Gupta described his grandfather as the founder of his extended family, saying the decision shaped the lives of multiple generations. “His decision impacted everything in my life, my parents’ lives, and my children’s lives. There is an obligation—you have to honor the fact that someone did that.
Reflecting on Sequoia Capital’s culture, he said its approach reminded him of how he grew up, with his parents being both demanding and supportive. “Three years later, he brought my grandmother and his youngest daughter, and left my dad and his brothers in India,” he added. I think about that a lot,” he said.
