WhatsApp’s chief business officer is leaving the company, the latest executive to flee since the messaging service was bought by Facebook.

Neeraj Arora, once tipped to take over as chief executive officer after its founder left earlier in this year, announced his departure on Monday evening.

The former Googler worked at WhatsApp for seven years after being poached by co-founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton - both of whom have since left. He will be leaving to take time off to “recharge and spend time with family,” he wrote on Facebook.

Arora, once described as “employee number four” in a TechCrunch article, did not mention Mark Zuckerberg, who bought the app for $22bn (£17bn) in 2014 in his farewell note, instead he thanking Koum and Acton and what he described as a "small set".

He said: “I've been blessed to work with a small set of talented people and see how maniacal focus can create something magical which is loved by billions of people.