Dive Brief:

• Bumble has begun a search for a finance chief to replace outgoing CFO Anu Subramanian, who notified the dating app provider last week that she was resigning to pursue other unspecified opportunities outside of the company, according to a Monday securities filing. 
• Subramanian — who was “instrumental” in the company’s 2021 initial public offering and has served as CFO since 2020 — will serve as finance chief through March 14, including through the company’s year-end earnings and the filing of its Form 10-K, the company said in a release
• The finance chief’s departure comes as Bumble also announced that Chief Marketing Officer Selby Drummond would leave the company in January, and appointed Neil Shah, whose career included senior positions at Slack and Twitter, to the newly appointed position of chief business officer tasked with responsibility for the execution of the company’s “strategic transformation.”

Dive Insight:

While online dating has evolved into a sizable industry in recent decades, some users are reporting negative experiences and certain sites have recently reported a decline in paying users, The Guardian reported. 

Bumble’s shares have slumped about 41% year-to date. Its total average revenue per paying user ticked down to $21.17 in Q3 from $23.42 in the year earlier period, though it reported the total number of its paying users increased 10% to 2.9 million compared to 3.8 million year-over-year. The company reported a net loss of $849.3 million for its latest quarter ended Sept. 30, which includes a non-cash impairment charge, compared to net earnings of $23.1 million in Q3 2023. 

On a Nov. 6 earnings call, executives noted that the company is in the early stages of a transformation of Bumble begun this year. 

“While we are making good early progress with Bumble-app strategic repositioning, we remain in the early innings of the work we are undertaking to strengthen our foundation, re-imagine the user experience and ultimately drive revenue aligned with the value we are delivering,” Subramanian said, according to a transcript of the call. 

The company on Monday declined to comment further on the leadership changes, but in its filing affirmed its financial outlook for Q4 and the full year 2024 and said Subramanian’s decision to resign was not the result of any disagreement with the company, the company’s management or board, or on any matter relating to the company’s operations, policies, or practices.

On Nov. 6 the company said it expected total revenue in the range of of $256 million to $262 million in Q4 and an adjusted EBITDA of $70 million to $73 million. For the full year of 2024 the company said it anticipates total revenue in the range of $1.06 billion to $1.07 billion and adjusted EBITDA margin growth of at least 200 basis points. 

Shah is joining Bumble after serving as a part-time business strategy senior advisor to the company since September, according to his LinkedIn account. He is taking on the new role just under a year after Lidiane Jones, formerly the CEO of communications platform Slack, joined Bumble as CEO, succeeding Bumble’s founder Whitney Wolfe Herd in that role. Shah is also an alum of Slack, having served as chief operating officer and head of business operations there.