Whitney Wolfe Herd arrives on the red carpet at the 2019 Time 100 Gala at Lincoln Center on April 23, 2019, in New York City. Earlier this year, she returned as CEO of Bumble. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
June 25 (UPI) — Bumble, the company that produces the online dating app designed to empower women, on Wednesday announced it is laying off 30% of its staff in a bid to reverse financial problems.
The company, which is based in Austin, Texas, announced the reduction of 240 positions at a saving of $40 million, with reinvestment of most of that money into product and technology development as it “realigns its operating structure to optimize execution on its strategic priorities,” according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Bumble said it will incur $13 million to $18 million of nonrecurring charges, mainly related to severance, benefits and associated costs for affected employees in the third and fourth quarters of 2025.
Bumble, which also runs Official, Badoo, Fruitz and other dating apps, announced it is increasing its second-quarter revenue forecast to $244 million to $249 million, up from the previously forecast $235 million to $243 million.
In 2024, Bumble had revenue of $1.07 billion with a $557 million net loss.
Bumb’s stock price closed up 25.14% to $1.31 on NASDAQ. The stock had a high this year of $8.64 on Feb. 4. Its public offering was $76 per share in 2021.
In February 2024, the company also cut 30% of its workforce.
At the start of the year, Bumble announced that founder Whitney Wolfe Herd was returning as CEO in March after stepping down from the role in 2023 though she remained on the board of directors. She co-founded Bumble in 2014 and helped create another app, Tinder, in 2012 and left two years later.
She filed sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits against Tinder, which later were settled.
Match, which owns Tinder and Hinge, also has been struggling. In May, Match said it was laying off 13% of its staff to reduce costs and streamline its organizational structure in a struggle to attract and retain users, including young ones.
Wolfe Herd said online dating is at an “inflection point.”
“The reality is, we need to take decisive action to restructure to build a company that’s resilient, intentional and ready for the next decade,” she wrote in an email to Bumble employees.
It was a much different situation one year ago. Bumble was the most downloaded dating application in the United States with 735,000 downloads.
“Bumble is designed to help you feel empowered while you make those connections, whether you’re dating, looking for, according to Bumble’s website. “On Bumble, women set the tone by making the first move or by setting an Opening Move for matches to reply to. Shifting old-fashioned power dynamics and encouraging equality from the start.”
Like with other dating apps, potential matches are displayed to users, who can “swipe left” to reject a candidate or “swipe right” to indicate interest.
In February 2022, Bumble announced it had acquired Fruitz, a French-owned freemium dating app popular with Gen Z and used across Europe.