12-08-2025
Life360 names Lauren Antonoff CEO amid strong growth, profit upgrade
New Life360 chief executive Lauren Antonoff says the family tracking app business and its fast growth have all the hallmarks of companies that went on to rule Silicon Valley.
She described the service as 'medicine for the soul' in an age of heightened anxiety.
Ms Antonoff was promoted from chief operating officer to founder Chris Hulls's successor on Tuesday. Mr Hulls will become Life360's executive chairman, having led the company for almost two decades.
'I really feel like we're just getting started,' Ms Antonoff told The Australian from San Francisco. 'We're still building that base of users.
'Life360 is an incredibly important mission. As a mum, I know how important that peace of mind is, and so to lead a company with a compelling mission and a great business is the opportunity of a lifetime.'
'I like to tell my friends that I didn't come to a smaller company. I came to a big company that's just earlier in its journey.'
Life360 logged 88 million monthly active users, a 25 per cent rise year on year, reporting its second-quarter results on Tuesday. The company added 136,000 new paying customers, to 2.5 million.
Quarterly revenue jumped 36 per cent year on year to $US115.4m ($176.9m) as annualised revenue rose 36 per cent, to $US416.1m.
The $6.5bn company also lifted full-year guidance, forecasting revenue of between $US462m and $US482m (up from between $US450m and $US480m) and adjusted EBITDA of between $US72m and $US82m (up from between $US65m and $US75m).
Local shares of the Nasdaq- and ASX-listed company were up 8.9 per cent to $41.20.
Citi analysts, led by Siraj Ahmed, were positive on the result, affirming a 'buy' rating and a $90 target price. User growth and a 35 per cent rise in annual revenue per paying customer were reasons for optimism, the broker said.
Citi expects another profit beat, given it tends to do better in the second half, making its guidance appear conservative.
Founded by Mr Hulls as a service that could help families locate each other in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Ms Antonoff said Life360's continued success in the 'anxiety economy' and at a time of budgetary constraint showed how important the service was to its customers.
'There are things that people give up first and that people give up last, and we are proving to be in the latter category,' she said.
'We are not a luxury, we are medicine for the soul.'
Ms Antonoff, 55, has an 18-year-old son who has just qualified for his driver's licence and a 26-year-old daughter living interstate.
Ms Antonoff, who has worked at Microsoft and GoDaddy, said she was introduced to tracking devices after the family dog ran away (it was found two days later). 'I started to research trackers, and actually said to my husband … made an offhand comment about how I should go work on something like that. About a month later, Life360 called.'
The new pet-specific tracking products and advertising business – where Life360 struck a deal with Uber to ping Life360 customers with Uber ads when at the airport, for example – will hopefully one day become key pillars of the company, she said.
'Brands are interested and hungry for the (ad) product. It's building from the ground up,' she said. 'I'm excited about the trajectory that we're on and the things that we're doing, whether it be ads on the revenue side or pets on the member side. There's no end in sight to the value that we can create for members and shareholders.'
Life360 has taken 'remote work to the next level', according to Ms Antonoff, at a time of intense discussion over proposed work from home laws being introduced in Victoria.
'After the pandemic, I got to experience how it really could be productive, and I liked it for myself,' Ms Antonoff said.
'I think that the key that a lot of people don't understand is that the thing that makes remote work work so well for us is that we believe in in-person, face-to-face time.
'It's not all about being on Zoom, which is important. But we also invested a lot of expense we used to use on physical real estate to make sure teams can get together and build relationships.' Joseph Carbone Digital Producer - Business
Joseph Carbone is a producer for The Australian Business Network after serving as Acting Digital Editor for The Weekly Times, Australia's foremost rural news source. Technology
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