"Bumble Inc" Q1 2026 Earnings Call - Tech Reset and AI-Driven Connection Model Take Center Stage

Investor Relations / Call Moderator, Bumble Inc.: Thank you for joining us to discuss Bumble’s first quarter 2026 financial results. With me today are Bumble’s Founder and CEO, Whitney Wolfe Herd, and CFO, Kevin Cook. Before we begin, I’d like to remind everyone that certain statements made on this call today are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties and reflect our current expectations based on our beliefs, assumptions, and information currently available to us. Although we believe these expectations are reasonable, we undertake no obligation to revise any statement to reflect changes that occur after this call. Descriptions of factors and risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements are discussed in more detail in today’s earnings press release and our periodic filings with the SEC. During the call, we also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures.

These non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to and not as a substitute for or in isolation from our GAAP results. Reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures are available in our earnings press release, which is available on the investor relations section of our website at ir.bumble.com. With that, I will turn the call over to Whitney.

Whitney Wolfe Herd, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Bumble Inc.: Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. This is a period of real transformation at Bumble. Over the past few quarters, we have executed a deliberate reset of our member base. We made a clear choice to prioritize quality over quantity, focusing on well-intentioned, engaged members. That decision reduced overall scale, but meaningfully improved the health of our ecosystem. Importantly, this quality reset was not isolated. It was the first step in a broader strategy to reestablish Bumble as the brand that sets the pace for innovation in our category. We focused first on strengthening the underlying supply of our platform because scale without quality degrades the experience and stifles the outcome people are seeking: high-quality, relevant connections. At the same time, we continued rebuilding our technology and product platform to better serve our members’ demand for real dates and in-real-life connections.

These moves required short-term trade-offs, but they were deliberate and necessary. Now, with healthier supply and stabilization in our member base, we are entering the next phase, activation. This phase is anchored by two innovation initiatives. First, the introduction of our new technology platform. Second, the launch of a fully reimagined experience for Bumble members, including a new interaction model and profile system. The new Bumble platform and experience will roll out over the balance of the year, beginning with the first stage of the new tech platform in the coming weeks. Our direct member engagement and our research, including our work with author and professor Dr. Arthur Brooks, reinforces a key insight. The biggest friction in dating today is not discovery. It is the gap between online interaction and real-world connection. People get stuck in that in-between. This is a central challenge faced by every scaled dating app.

Everything we are building is designed to close that gap and drive real in-person dates between high-quality connections. Accelerating each member’s progression towards finding that connection and getting out on a date is our priority. We’ve been doing foundational work on this problem ahead of introducing our new platform and reimagined experience. We have improved profiles, strengthened intent signaling, enhanced safety, and built more dynamic onboarding. These changes have helped members show up better, even within the limits of our legacy systems. We are also continuing to improve the current Bumble experience by addressing core member pain points, improving recommendations, and enhancing usability. Early tests are showing promising results, including improvements in matching behavior and monetization trends, but results are expected to be relatively limited on the legacy tech stack. We have more to do here in the months ahead. What comes next will go much further.

The innovation starts with our technology platform. As we shared last quarter, we have been actively rebuilding our new cloud-native, AI-enabled tech stack. This modern platform will allow us to move faster, iterate more efficiently, and begin to unlock entirely new product experiences. Today, making meaningful changes to our recommendation engine or introducing new features can take months. This has been a real constraint on the rate of innovation. Our new tech platform is expected to eliminate this constraint. As the platform rebuild nears completion, we are ramping development of the next generation Bumble date application, a merging of the new back end and the reimagined member experience, launching in select markets in Q4 of this year. Between now and then, elements of our new technology platform will begin powering a parallel roadmap of incremental improvements in the existing product.

With our new app experience, the opportunity is not just to improve the current interaction model, but to evolve beyond it. We are designing a system that shortens the distance between intent and outcome, eliminating the friction caused by multiple steps between interest and connection. Clearer signals drive more mutual engagement and faster progression towards in-real-life connection. Early reactions to this new model have been very positive. Our AI layer, Bee, is expected to play a key role in the re-imagined experience. Testing Bee and onboarding new members has been especially encouraging, not just in Bee’s effectiveness, but in members’ willingness to engage deeply and share richer context about who they are and what they are looking for. Bee’s ability to capture more signal and process information quickly improves our understanding of each member and will strengthen our recommendation engine.

Onboarding is just the first step in how Bee will be used in the new experience. We also expect Bee to help facilitate connection and to suggest and plan real dates among other roles. Bee is a great example of what we can accomplish on the new modern tech stack and how AI will be an important catalyst for our business. It is important to note that we built Bee separate from the legacy system. I have said a lot here, so let me summarize. First, demand for love and human connection is as vital as ever before. We have done the heavy lifting to reset our business with healthy supply that is ready to engage. We are giving them the tools to show up authentically as their best selves. Next is our new platform, which will accelerate product innovation.

Right behind that will be an entirely transformed Bumble experience, which dramatically reduces friction and gets members to in-real-life connection faster. We believe this is our path to deliver what daters are seeking today. This is the path to restoring revenue growth. We are already at work building the monetization model behind it. That is the core of the Bumble app transformation. It’s only part of the picture. Beyond dating, we are also investing in broader connection, which we see as both a critical need in the world and a competitive advantage for us. We have expanded groups on Bumble BFFs and are seeing strong early traction, with total group joins nearly doubling between December and March. This success is driven by Gen Z women who comprise the largest cohort on the platform, highlighting our opportunity with this core demographic.

Overall, more than 80% of BFF members are women, reinforcing the durability of our overall brand. We will continue to expand on group connections and in-real-life meeting for platonic purposes through BFFs, but we are also bullish on the opportunity of romance beyond 1-to-1 in terms of how people come together and meet for love. We are testing new ways to bring people together for both platonic and romantic purposes, including a new product beta launching next month, which we are super excited about. Across all of these efforts, our approach remains consistent: test, learn, iterate, and do it quickly. We are data-driven, member-obsessed, and more passionate about the opportunity and problem we are solving than ever before. In terms of timing, members will first experience the rollout of our new platform, delivering a faster and more reliable experience starting in the coming weeks from a back-end standpoint.

From there, we expect to introduce the initial features of our new interaction model and profile. This is our big bang. It will start to roll out to select markets in Q4, backed by a 360 marketing campaign. We’ll continue to refine the experience into 2027, including adding features like group dating and expanded access to Bee. Ahead of our upcoming unveil, we are continuing to deliver innovations in the current Bumble experience that help members show up better, more confident, and ready to engage. Not all of these improvements will be immediately visible to members, but the critical signal enhancements they enable will drive more relevant connections on the back end. The UI/UX will be on our modernized back end, which will enable the rollout of our transformed experience later this year. As we execute this transformation, we remain disciplined.

We delivered a strong Q1 compared to our expectations. We are managing our cost structure carefully while continuing to invest in product, technology, and selective marketing. Of note, we have reduced our performance marketing spend to less than 50% of pre-quality reset levels. We are starting to see the benefit of organic marketing again, including positive word of mouth now that we have improved the member base quality. Despite tech limitations, we’ve been able to drive meaningful improvements, which we believe signals the opportunity ahead with a modern tech stack in place. To close, we have been hard at work rebuilding our foundation. Now, we are focused on translating that into a meaningfully better product experience, which members will start seeing in the coming months. We cannot wait to reignite our brand, product, and mission as we transform Bumble and our category.

We look forward to sharing more in the months ahead. Thank you so much for your time, and now I will turn it over to Kevin.

Kevin Cook, Chief Financial Officer, Bumble Inc.: Thank you, Whitney. Hello everyone. In the first quarter, we delivered results in line with our expectations as we move past our quality reset to focus on product and technology innovation. As Whitney noted, we’re seeing signs of stabilization in our member base as we enter the next phase of activation. I’ll review our quarterly results before turning to our outlook. Unless otherwise noted, my comments are on a non-GAAP basis and comparisons are year-over-year. Total revenue for the first quarter was $212 million, compared to $247 million in the year ago period. Foreign currency exchange rates contributed $9 million to revenue in the quarter. The loss of revenue from Fruitz and Official equate to approximately one percentage point of headwind in the quarter.

Bumble app revenue was $173 million, compared to $202 million a year ago. Foreign currency exchange rates contributed $6 million to Bumble app revenue. Adjusted EBITDA was $83 million, representing a margin of 39% compared to $64 million and 26% in the prior year period. Higher Adjusted EBITDA, despite year-over-year revenue decline, is a function of how we have executed through our reset period, most notably with more intensive operating discipline and thoughtful marketing spend. Selling and marketing expense was approximately $26 million or 12% of revenue, compared to approximately $60 million or 24% of revenue in the prior year period. In addition to the reduced overall spend, we’ve increased our focus on lower cost and higher return organic and targeted marketing channels.

This strategy brings us back to our historical marketing strengths, which we believe also supports long-term brand health. Product development expense was approximately $25 million or 12% of revenue, compared to approximately $24 million and 10% in the prior year period. Our product development spending is focused on core product innovation and platform modernization. General and administrative expense was approximately $24 million or 11% of revenue, compared to approximately $26 million or 10% of revenue in the prior year period. I’ll now turn to the balance sheet and cash flows. For the quarter, we generated $77 million in operating cash flow, $74 million of which converted into free cash flow. We ended the quarter with $246 million of cash and cash equivalents and continue to generate substantial cash flow while maintaining a strong liquidity position.

In April, we completed the refinancing of our term loan, as had been previously announced. Consistent with our plans to continue deleveraging, we paid down $114 million of debt in connection with the transaction. Pro forma for the refinancing, we had $150 million of cash and cash equivalents at the end of April. Turning to the outlook, as we move beyond the quality reset, our focus is now on activating our higher quality member base through product innovation and improved member experience. This transition will unfold over the balance of the year as we introduce our new tech platform and accelerate the introduction of new member experiences. While this work will take time to be reflected in our financials, we believe it best positions us to drive more durable engagement and monetization.

For the second quarter, we expect total revenue in the range of $205 million-$213 million, including Bumble app revenue of $168 million-$174 million, and Adjusted EBITDA of $65 million-$70 million, representing a margin of approximately 32% at the midpoint. As we move through 2026, we expect revenue headwinds to moderate as the most acute effects of the quality reset dissipate and we transition from stabilizing to rebuilding the member base. Adjusted EBITDA margins are expected to normalize over the remainder of 2026 as we increase investment in technology and talent to modernize our platform and drive product innovation. We also plan to increase marketing spend to support our innovation initiatives, organic member growth, and brand strength.

In closing, we’ve made meaningful progress on our transformation and are now focused on executing the next phase of the business. We’re pairing a healthier, more engaged member base with a modernized platform that will enable faster product innovation and more effective revenue generation over time. Operator, let’s take some questions, please.

Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to 1 question and 1 follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question, and if you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Your first question comes from the line of Eric Sheridan from Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Eric Sheridan, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: Thanks so much for taking the questions. Whitney, I want to come back to some of the comments you made in the prepared remarks and go a little bit deeper. When you think about the tech stack and how it will iterate going forward, I wanted to ask a two-parter. One, how should we be thinking about the velocity of innovation and your speed in terms of going to market that will result from that as we continue to monitor the business from the outside in? What do you think about your opportunity around personalization and how much of it will be either AI-driven or non-AI-driven when you think about what the tech stack might enable you to do in the years ahead? Thanks so much.

Whitney Wolfe Herd, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Bumble Inc.: Thank you, Eric. Great to hear from you. I’ll take this piece by piece. I think before we talk about the actual incredible opportunity we have ahead with this new tech stack. Just to double down on a couple of the prepared remarks I had around what we’ve been dealing with. We have had extraordinary tech debt. What do I mean by this? We have, frankly, not been able to make the changes that both our members are wanting, commanding, needing, demanding, but that we have wanted to roll out. You know, all of the results you’ve seen to date are done on the back end of a very legacy system, which really does inhibit the second part of your question, which I’m going to get to in a moment, the personalization of the experience. Let’s talk about velocity, my favorite word.

Velocity is going to go up in such a way with this new tech stack. As an example, if we wanted to make a change to the recommendation engine right now, which is the algorithm, essentially, right? It could take us months. It’s extremely clunky, it’s extremely cumbersome, it’s extremely difficult to navigate. On this new tech stack, we’re talking we can put tests in immediately. We can be monitoring in real time. We can have A/B testing going at, you know, levels we’ve never been able to access before. Frankly, we can make changes in a matter of days or weeks versus months or even frankly, years.

When you, when you really start to wrap your head around the opportunity there, I think you can understand why I am personally so excited about this new system finally hitting members, backends here in the, in the back end of the system here in the, in the coming weeks. Let’s talk about personalization. This is the name of the game. What’s the one reason why people come to a product like ours, particularly Bumble? They’re not coming for entertainment. They’re not coming to, you know, use it like a, like a social media platform. They’re coming to meet people. If you want to meet someone, the baseline is you have to, you have to be shown people you want to see and that you want to meet.

What we’re able to do with this new system and this next gen recommendation engine, which is, you know, kind of goes side by side with the new tech infrastructure, we will be able to personalize the system in ways that we’ve just frankly never had access to. It’s not lack of innovation, it’s not lack of roadmap, it’s not lack of talent. It has been lack of technical capability. You will see extreme personalization. Turning to the last part of your question, AI or not AI. No, it’s a hybrid. I think it’s important to maybe just spend a quick moment on how I look at AI for this business. AI should never replace human authenticity or human connection.

Frankly, I’ve been saying this for a long time, but I certainly hope that the rest of the world is starting to see it the way I am in the sense that human connection is starting to matter more now than ever before, and real authentic human connection. For those of you that have been following and watching people fall in love with AI bots, I mean, this is not the future we want for ourselves or the next generation. This is why I’m at work. I’m giving it my all to make sure that we can bring people closer to real, in real life, face-to-face human, meaningful relationships and connections. We will leverage AI to enable that, but we will not use AI to replace that. I hope that answers the question.

I could talk about this for 6 hours, but I want to give other folks an opportunity to jump in. Thank you again, Eric, for your question.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Shweta Khajuria from Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.

Shweta Khajuria, Analyst, Wolfe Research: Okay. Thank you for taking my question, and thanks for the commentary and your prepared remarks, Whitney. As we think about the timeline, could you please talk to what gives you confidence post, you know, the activation phase of the renewed tech platform in 2027 or in Q4 of 2026 into 2027, you will start seeing potentially market improvements in the refresh tech platform. Could you point to what you saw in your tests that gives you that confidence, and what should we be looking for starting in Q4 into next year? Thank you.

Whitney Wolfe Herd, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Bumble Inc.: Thanks, Shweta Khajuria. Shweta Khajuria, it’s great to hear from you. Let’s talk about these different kind of work streams. I wanna be very clear that the back-end tech rebuild is different than what the front, you know, forward-facing, member-facing, interaction model and profile redesign are. These are two separate things that will converge into each other. However, one comes before the other. That is the back-end technology and migration and enablement and rebuild. That is coming here in the coming weeks for select members, and we’ll start to roll out globally and more broadly, obviously, over the weeks following and the months following. That is the enabler of everything. That is where we can go in and make algorithmic improvements.

We can start to make matching and recommendation, you know, e-economics better for folks and really make sure that you are seeing who you want to see. Very importantly, that’s the back end, and that will start to enable everything. Very importantly, I fundamentally believe and I feel that I am a trusted source here because I’ve been on the front line of this industry from its kind of mobile explosion inception, if you will. I fundamentally believe the interaction model is outdated, not just for us, I’m talking about the industry at large. I believe it’s time to leapfrog anything that currently exists and help people break through these areas of friction where these cliffs exist. Right now, to get somebody from first sight to first date is extremely difficult.

There’s so many areas of drop-off opportunity where that mutuality of needing to like each other, needing to chat to each other, needing to keep the conversations going on this double-sided, you know, format, is quite difficult to get you to a date. Frankly, Shweta, we’re a dating app. We’re not a matching app, we’re not a swiping app, but have we really been behaving like that? That is the impetus of the new interaction model. We have listened to our members. We have been in the trenches with them. I personally have been on the front lines of research and deep in the data.

That forward-facing, member-touching interface, interaction, transition, and profile redesign, that is what you will start to see in a major market in Q4, and then of course, rolling out more broadly through, you know, the end of Q4 and early into 2027. Let me, let me actually try to answer your precise question. When do we start to see a rebound in the numbers you’re all looking for? The answer is very simple. When our technology and our next gen recommendation engine can actually help better connect people more compatibly and show people who they wanna see and then get them out on great dates, that’s where the magic happens.

Every single thing we are doing, I’m spending every waking hour of my life right now in effort of serving that one goal: get people out on great dates. I hope this starts to answer your question. Thank you again for taking the time.

Shweta Khajuria, Analyst, Wolfe Research: Thanks, Whitney. That’s helpful.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Nathan Feather from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Nathan Feather, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Hey, everyone. Thanks so much for the question. Yeah, interested in digging in a little bit more on that kind of pipeline from discovery to actually getting out on dates. What do you feel are the current real pinch points that cause people to maybe have a match, but, you know, not actually convert that into an in-person connection? What do you think can actually solve that problem? Is there any issues from a perspective of a lot of people have different date preferences, there’s local markets, are there ways that you can kind of solve those? That’s the first part of the question. Second, continuously really strong performance on gross margin. Can you just give an update on what you’re seeing in terms of direct payment adoption?

Do we think about the uplift that’s driving any of that? Thank you.

Whitney Wolfe Herd, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Bumble Inc.: Thanks, Nathan, for the question. I’ll take the first half. I’ll kick the second part to Kevin Cook. The reality is, you’re right. Everyone has different dating preferences. The one thing everybody can kind of agree on at this point is everyone is exhausted from this passive, this passive model of just low, like, low effort interest, that there’s very little follow-through. Frankly, the industry at large, and us included, we’ve made it just too easy to express low intent interest. We are turning that on its head. I can’t say much more. I really believe that this is going to be category defining, we want to keep it, you know, close to the chest. What we will tell you is the early testing has come back remarkably positive.

There is very little concern that this is not the right direction. To your point, every market is different, culturally different, you know, preferences are different. We have no issue with being really agile and making sure that we test our way into the appropriate, you know, sequencing and the appropriate rollout strategy to make sure that those nuances are accounted for. I really, you know, listen, I’m now 36. I’ve been doing this since I was 22. I cannot tell you how much this is needed right now for people to really feel reinvigorated with finding love. There’s a few frank realities. We are on our phones more than we’ve ever been on our phones before, much more so than when I started this company. The need for human connection and love is greater right now than ever.

We are more disconnected. Everything is working in our favor. The only thing that has been going wrong is our ability to execute on product innovation, that is simply due to legacy tech debt. We are working extraordinarily hard. The teams are incredible, and they are so close on getting us to a place where we can finally innovate and deliver a modern product to our members so that they can continue to make meaningful connections in the real world. Kevin, over to you.

Kevin Cook, Chief Financial Officer, Bumble Inc.: Nathan, it’s Kevin. The improvement in gross margin is primarily a function of increased adoption of alternative billing methods, and therefore reduction in aggregator fees. You’re right to point out that, you know, we had very strong gross margin in the quarter, about 300 basis points than the prior year period, and we continue to see strong adoption of our Apple Pay program, for example, in the U.S., and that program is slightly ahead of expectation. We expect to see, you know, alternative billing be a tailwind to margin throughout 2026.

Nathan Feather, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Very helpful. Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Marok from Raymond James.

Ron, Analyst, Raymond James: Hi, this is Ron dialing in for Andrew Marok. Thank you for taking our question. As it relates to the post-reset disclosures made today, could you update us through March and April and explain how the curves for registrations, retention, MAUs and payer penetration, trended from October till now, given that this was the first month dubbed as the post-quality reset? Which metric should, you know, best predict payer recovery going forward?

Kevin Cook, Chief Financial Officer, Bumble Inc.: Hey, Ron. Thanks for the question. Obviously the disclosures were provided specifically as a way for us to meet a contractual obligation to prospective lenders to cleanse data that we shared with them in connection with the refinancing. That information is all, you know, for the periods provided. You can see them outlined there in the specific disclosure on the website. They’re all reflected in our current financials. They’re out of date, stale, and have no sort of import, you know, in terms of the business today. The only thing I can share is that, you know, the business has stabilized with respect to, you know, KPI performance.

In particular on, you know, registrations, I think you see highlighted there the, you know, the steps that we took quite intentionally to bring the member base down to what we viewed as a healthier, higher quality ecosystem from which now we can build. That’s all I have for you on that.

Ron, Analyst, Raymond James: Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Ken Gawrelski from Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Ken Gawrelski, Analyst, Wells Fargo: Thank you so much. As you look out, you know, a couple years in success as you kind of transition the business, could you talk about how you could see the financial profile of the business is different relative to, you know, 2023, 2024? Talk about the tech debt that’s built up in the past. You obviously don’t want that to recur. Could you just talk about, you know, any changes we might see to the financial profile of the business as you kind of get back to growth in the, you know, in 2027, 2028?

Kevin Cook, Chief Financial Officer, Bumble Inc.: Hey, Ken. It’s Kevin Cook. Apologies, you broke up. Can you repeat the question or, you know, summarize the question quickly?

Ken Gawrelski, Analyst, Wells Fargo: Oh, sure. Sorry. Is that better? Can you hear me better, please?

Operator: It’s still a little shaky. Try one more time.

Ken Gawrelski, Analyst, Wells Fargo: I’m sorry. Is this better? Sorry.

Kevin Cook, Chief Financial Officer, Bumble Inc.: We heard that.

Ken Gawrelski, Analyst, Wells Fargo: Um, so-

Kevin Cook, Chief Financial Officer, Bumble Inc.: Why don’t you go ahead and we’ll do our best.

Ken Gawrelski, Analyst, Wells Fargo: Quick question. My quick question is this: When you think about, you know, the future kind of financial profile of the business, if you go out, you know, 24 months, 36 months, relative to what we, you know, seen at the business in 2022, 2023 timeframe, how may it look different in your view? Different tech stack, you know, and maybe a different kind of marketing go-to-market strategy. Could you just talk a little bit about what the changes in the financial profile might look like? Thank you.

Kevin Cook, Chief Financial Officer, Bumble Inc.: Of course. Okay. You’re right to point out, you know, two key things. First, in the timeframe you referenced, it was a marketing-led business, not a product and technology-led business as it has been since Whitney returned as CEO. What you’ll continue to see is a much more efficient marketing spend. Marketing should never return to the levels that you observed in 2024 and 2025. Marketing is used as a, in support of and as a tool to enhance product and contribute to, you know, new product introduction, launch and of course, to some degree brand. You will see a higher rate overall in technology and spend or product development.

We’re in a period of investment now. You see us beginning to gently increase product development expense to deliver all of the innovation that Whitney was describing and is expected for the 2nd half of the year. Overall, with steady revenue, or revenue growth, there would be substantial operating margin in the business. You should expect to see continued Adjusted EBITDA margin expansion again, so long as revenue is stable or revenue is increasing. Let me know if that answers the question.

Ken Gawrelski, Analyst, Wells Fargo: Yes. Thank you.

Operator: At this time, there are no further questions. This concludes today’s call. Thank you all for attending. You may now disconnect.