Bumble Inc.

If you would like to register a question during today's event, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand over to Cheryl Valenzuela, VP of Investor Relations. The floor is yours. Please go ahead.

Thank you for joining us to discuss Bumble's first quarter 2024 financial results. With me today are Lydiane Jones, CEO, and Anu Subramanian, CFO of Bumble. 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 our earnings press release and filings with the SEC, including our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, and our subsequent periodic filings. 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 today's earnings press release, which is available on the investor relations section of our website at ir.bumble.com. And with that, I'll turn it over to Lydiane.

Thank you, Cheryl, and good afternoon, everyone. We have had a very productive start to 2024. Bumble is where women make the first move, and it continues today. As I complete my first 100 days as Bumble CEO, I'm even more energized by Bumble's unique position to help the world create healthy and equitable connections throughout people's lives, focused on women's experiences. That's what Bumble has always been about, and our mission, coupled with our product-led approach to meeting customers where they are, makes Bumble more relevant than ever. We kicked off the year with discipline and speed, and delivered solid Q1 performance while also executing on our exciting plans for Bumble app. We launched the first stage of this journey last week. I've been very impressed with our team's energy and pace of innovation, and there's a lot more to come over the course of the year. I'll detail what's new with the Bumble app in a moment, but first, let me recap the financial results. Our first quarter performance was solid across our key metrics. Total revenue in Q1 reached $268 million, up 10% year-over-year, driven by Bumble app revenue of $216 million, which was up 11%. Both Bumble and Badoo apps grew paying users year-over-year and sequentially, with Bumble app net ads of 42,000 in this quarter. Based on third-party data, Bumble app's worldwide downloads on an absolute basis through year-over-year and sequentially in Q1. We also continued to expand our global download share, fueled by international markets in Western Europe and Latin America. These results, combined with continued financial discipline, enabled us to deliver a significant improvement in our margin. Adjusted EBITDA in Q1 reached $74 million, or 28% of revenue. We also returned $84 million of capital, to our shareholders throughout our stock repurchase program. Since joining Bumble, I have prioritized listening to our community, including our Gen Z customers. These conversations confirm a thesis core to Bumble that an overwhelming majority of women view equality as the core priority in relationships. We have also learned that how women define equality is evolving. Women want choice and autonomy. And with Gen Z in particular, they want to make more human connections in their lives, whether it's dating or friendship. And they want flexibility in how they make their connection. We believe addressing these needs is how we unlock growth in this category. And it validates our long-term view of where we're taking Bumble, including how we think of the role of BFF. All of the feedback we have received from our customers reaffirm that Bumble has a strong foundation in place to deliver on what customers want today. That brings us to our Bumble app relaunch last week, where we showcased the first chapter of our extended vision for Bumble and how we're innovating to make our customers' dating experience even better. Our refreshed brand identity and new product features are designed to support three goals. Improve the core experience of our customers, enhance trust and safety, and increase our options for monetization. Let me touch on each. First, we're improving the core user experience, starting with opening moves. We have expanded upon our signature make the first move by introducing choice in how connection is made. Women can choose to make the first move as always, and now they can choose to have a question set that their matches can respond to. Creating a new way to engage with connections while retaining control. I want to be clear, women still make the first move at Bumble. They now have additional control over how that happens, and we'll continue to emphasize that with our customers. In addition to opening moves, we launched a suite of new features. An improved profile creation flow to make it easier for customers to get started. An increase in the minimum number of required photos to enhance self-expression. advancements to our 4U algorithm, previously called Best Bees, to accelerate compatible discoveries, and updated our dating intentions badges to help our customers better communicate what relationships they're looking for, from casual all the way to serious. We complemented this richer product experience with a global marketing campaign. We've changed so you don't have to. The first phase of this campaign showcases how our product updates deliver a better dating experience while underscoring that Bumble has always and will always stand for women. We've Chained So You Don't Have To is underway in 15 markets, including the US. This robust marketing campaign taps multiple channels and activates Bumble's large college ambassador network and global influencer marketing. we're embracing trust and safety for women in the app. This quarter, we advanced photo verification on Bumble with significant updates to our own developed computer vision model for likeness comparison between someone's verification photo and profile photos. As a result, we have improved automation rate at both the user and the photo level while maintaining precision and reducing our manual moderation costs. It's important to know that as we continue to innovate, trust and safety features will be a big part of future chapters of Bumble's evolution, and it is a key part of prioritizing a healthy ecosystem in our products. Finally, we're expanding monetization with our updated Premium Plus subscription tier. We continue to have conviction that our subscription tiers are designed to bring value to our customers by offering them the fastest path to finding their matches. Premium Plus is built on this principle, and we increased its value in this release by updating the feature set with personalized photo insights and better match curation. We see Premium Plus as a valuable future revenue stream and expect to continue to add additional features and optimize pricing for the subscription tier. Beyond Premium Plus, we're continuing to run global pricing optimization and expanding farther into existing growth markets in Western Europe, Latam, and Asia. Overall, the Bumble app launch feedback from customers has been tremendously valuable to us. We captured the attention of young users who loved our marketing campaign and are taking time to share their thoughts on what they would like to see us do next. It's clear that customers of all ages want Bumble to be the brand that they trust to really understand and meet their needs. Based on early data from last week, we have seen strong improvements in engagement trends, including an increase in chat initiation, with almost half of new users adopting opening moves, and most importantly, an increase in users getting matches. This has been an encouraging start. Now turning to our other apps, Badoo delivered positive revenue growth in Q1. We plan to continue building on this momentum with product innovation and targeted marketing campaigns aimed at improving brand awareness, especially among women. Our goal is to showcase Badoo as the app that builds dating confidence, enabling its loyal user base to express and be their real selves in a safe and trusted environment. Our team is also focused on unlocking the significant market opportunity beyond dating. We increasingly envision Bumble BFF as an integrated part of how we help our customers find meaningful relationships and love. And as I noted earlier, that vision is supported by the community feedback we've received as part of the Bumble app relaunch. Given the loneliness epidemic in society, there's significant demand for a safe space online for more genuine human connection. And Bumble has the potential to fulfill that need. We are actively looking at ways to accelerate the roadmap for Bumble BFF, and we'll share more in the coming months. As we drive our future roadmap, it's been exciting to see our team's enthusiasm to integrate AI into our offerings in important ways. Bumble has incredibly strong data, AI capabilities, and technical talent in the company today. And since the start of the year, we're more rapidly embracing the advancements of generative AI to accelerate innovation, focusing on compatibility, profile creation experiences, better understanding our customer's evolving intent, and continuing to lead in trust and safety. We're also targeting the use of generative AI to drive efficiency, both for Bumble and for our customers, with enhanced customer service as one key example. I also want to speak to our organizational transformation. We've made some difficult but important structural changes to enhance our agility and efficiency. And I couldn't be more proud of how our employees have embraced the course we're charting as a company. I'm also excited about the significant senior leadership talent who have joined us in critical areas such as product, engineering, operations, and people, all of whom bring excellent track records and high-growth tech companies. Our organization is moving forward as a performance-focused team that brings the collective skills and experiences needed to execute on our strategy and scale the business. The first four months of this year demonstrate that we have come together well in executing effectively. I'm also grateful for the team for staying committed to our mission and values and for rallying around important work we're doing to champion women, not just in our apps, but in society more broadly. This quarter, we proudly joined 19 prominent business peers, from a range of industries to participate in the Don't Ban Equality Coalition's latest ad campaign in support of reproductive health care. We are also celebrating the introduction of a U.S. federal bill to fight cyber flashing, a cause that we have backed successfully for years at the state level. I'm also proud of the Bumble support of women athletes in the U.S. And it was a joy to watch Cameron Brink, one of Bumble's sponsored student athletes, Be selected in the WNBA draft to play at the LA Sparks. Cameron, the entire Bumble team loves watching you play, and we are cheering for you. Finally, I want to thank our shareholders, our partners, and above all, all of our customers for the trust and support you've given Bumble. It's been amazing to see what we can accomplish in such a short amount of time. I'm filled with gratitude, enthusiasm, and confidence about where we're going and what we can achieve. And with that, I'll turn it over to Anu for details on our financial results and outlook.