Andrey Andreev

Russian-British entrepreneur (born 1974)

For the Bulgarian water polo player, see Andrey Andreev (water polo). For the Russian actor, see Andrey Andreev (actor).

Andrey Andreev

Born|  (1974-02-03) 3 February 1974 (age 50)

Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union

Nationality| Russian
Citizenship| British
Occupation| Entrepreneur
Known for| Badoo, Bumble

Andrey Andreev (Russian: Андрей Андреев;[1] born Andrey Vagnerovich Ogadzhanyants (Russian: Андрей Вагнерович Огаджанянц); 3 February 1974[2][3]) is a multinational tech entrepreneur.[4] He is known for founding the dating and social networking apps Bumble and Badoo, amongst others.[5][6][7] In 2019, Andreev sold the apps' holding company, MagicLab, to Blackstone at a $3 billion valuation.[8] In 2020, he founded social audio app Stereo.[9] His previous ventures include SpyLog, Begun, and Mamba.

## Early and personal life[edit]

Andreev was born and raised in Moscow, Russia. In interviews, Andreev discussed an early interest in communication technology; he built a homemade radio as a preteen and the first person he spoke to was from New York.[10][11]

In 2005, he moved to London, England, settling in Covent Garden.[12][5][4] He became a British citizen in 2008.[4]

Andreev lists cooking as one of his greatest passions and contributes dishes to the menus of his favorite restaurants.[13] The sweet onion soup 'Andreï Style' at two-Michelin-starred L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon in Covent Garden, London, is named after him.[14]

In 2018, Andreev made the Forbes' global list of billionaires for the first time. In August 2022, his net worth was estimated at $2.0 billion.[5]

## Career[edit]

### Early entrepreneurship[edit]

In 1992, after dropping out of a management course at the University of Moscow within a year of enrollment, Andreev moved to Valencia, Spain. He began startups and sold them for a profit. Two such ventures were Virus (1995 to 1997), an online Russian business selling computers, and SpyLog (1999 to 2001), software for web owners that tracks visitors.[14][4]

In 2002, Andreev founded the digital advertising firm, Begun.[15] In 2003, he sold the majority share of the company to Russian investment firm Finam Holdings[16] and sold his remaining stake in 2004.[4]

In 2004, Andreev founded the freemium, desktop-based dating site, Mamba. In its first year of operation, Mamba grew to more than 4 million users. In 2006, he sold his stake in the company for an undisclosed amount.[4]

### Badoo[edit]

Main article: Badoo

In 2006, Andreev launched Badoo, the social networking and photo-sharing app. Initially developed to compete with Facebook, Andrey decided to pivot to dating after the release of the iPhone. The company experienced rapid growth throughout Europe and Latin America, growing to nearly 12 million users within the first year.[14]

In an article in 2011, Wired described Badoo as a 'mass phenomenon' in Brazil, Mexico, France, Spain, and Italy.[17] By 2019, Badoo had 425 million registered users globally and operated in 190 countries.[18]

According to a 2018 Forbes investigation, thirteen employees reported a toxic culture at Badoo's London headquarters. This included circulation of pornography of an employee and a culture of parties with prostitutes and illegal drug consumption, photos of which were shared via internal emails. Forbes accused Andreev of knowledge of the events via email, but not participation in them. Additionally, female employees were sexually harassed and assaulted and described tolerating this to achieve career progression. Forbes additionally reported that parts of this culture were beginning to change, including diversity and inclusion training and cessation of naming technical updates after pornography performers.[4][19]

In a 2017 interview, Andreev claimed that Badoo had invented the popular dating application "swipe" feature.[10] Andreev also introduced industry-standard paid features such as 'rise up'[14] and the 'lookalike' feature that allows users to search for others who have similar characteristics to their favorite celebrity.[10] In an October 2017 interview with Shortlist, Andreev stated his philosophy and management style is, "to make people happy", describing Badoo's company culture and the perks they offered including food and parties.

In April 2019, Andreev committed 100% of Badoo's revenue to restore the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris following the fire.[20][21]

### Bumble[edit]

Main article: Bumble

In 2014, Andreev contacted former Tinder marketing executive Whitney Wolfe about working together.[22][23][24] Andreev initially offered Wolfe a role as Chief Marketing Officer at Badoo, but she refused.[23] He persuaded her to move back into the dating space by offering her funding and access to Badoo's team.[23] In December 2014, they launched Bumble, the women-focused dating app.[22]

Speaking to The Guardian, Wolfe named Andreev as her biggest mentor in business[25] and that he, "took the chance on her when no one else would", and that "without him, the Bumble journey wouldn’t have been possible."[26]

Per their agreement, Andreev oversaw the company's operations and leveraged Badoo's infrastructure and engineering resources.[27] He provided US$10 million in funding and owned 79% of the company.[27] Wolfe was founder and CEO, and owned 20%.[27] Bumble shared infrastructure with Badoo at its London office.[4]

Bumble was valued at more than $1 billion in November 2017.[27]

### MagicLab[edit]

In 2019, Andreev launched MagicLab, a holding company that builds and owns dating and social networking apps Badoo, Bumble, Lumen, Chappy, and Hot or Not in partnership with their founders.[6] In November 2019, he sold his shares to Blackstone Group, the largest alternative investment firm in the world, which became a majority owner of MagicLab.[28] At the time of purchase, Bumble and its sister apps were valued at $3 billion.[29] In 2020, MagicLab was renamed Bumble as the parent company of both Bumble and Badoo.[30]

### Stereo[edit]

In 2020, after the sale of MagicLab to Blackstone, Andreev launched the social audio app Stereo. The app allows users to interact with live talks via hosting and listening capabilities.[31][32] The company has offices in London and Los Angeles, with 20 former MagicLab employees involved.[31][33][34][35]

## References[edit]

1. ^ Levinsky, Alexander (12 November 2010). "Billion for the introduction As one of the most mysterious businessmen in the West, Russia has created a mega-project Badoo". Forbes (Russia) (in Russian). Retrieved 6 January 2011.
2. ^ Андреев Андрей (Оганджанянц Андрей Вагнерович). Биографическая справка Archived 3 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine(in Russian)
3. ^ Henni, Adrien (11 November 2019). "Russian Billionaire Sells Dating App Empire in $3Bln Deal". The Moscow Times. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h
* Au-Yeung, Angel. "The Russian Billionaire Cupid Behind The Biggest Dating App in the World". Forbes. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
* Au-Yeung, Angel (8 July 2019). "Exclusive Investigation: Sex, Drugs, Misogyny And Sleaze At The HQ Of Bumble's Owner". Forbes. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
5. ^ a b c "Forbes profile: Andrey Andreev". Forbes. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
6. ^ a b Lucas Matney (28 June 2019). "Bumble now lets you call your matches without exchanging numbers". TechCrunch. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
7. ^ Sophie Alexander; Benjamin Stupples (11 October 2018). "Bumble Owner Targets Nasdaq IPO to Become World's Top Matchmaker". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
8. ^ "Blackstone takes majority stake in "Bumble" parent, values firm at about $3 bln". Reuters. 8 November 2019. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
9. ^ Stupples, Benjamin (9 November 2020). "Billionaire Bumble Seller Plans Global Launch of Talk Show App". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
10. ^ a b c Machell, Ben (21 October 2017). "Meet Andrey Andreev, the man behind Badoo, the world's biggest dating app". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
11. ^ Machell, Ben. Meet Andrey Andreev, the man behind Badoo, the world’s biggest dating app (англ.) (21 October 2017). Архивировано 27 декабря 2018 года. Дата обращения 27 декабря 2018.
12. ^ David Rowan. How Badoo built a billion-pound social network... on sex // Wired UK : magazine. — 2011-04-25. — ISSN 1357-0978. Архивировано 22 декабря 2018 года.
13. ^ Cook, James. "We ate with the billionaire tech founder who eats his lunch at a different Michelin-starred restaurant nearly every day". Business Insider. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
14. ^ a b c d How Badoo built a billion-pound social network... on sex by David Rowan, Wired Magazine, 6 April 11. Accessed April 2011
15. ^ Cook, James. "The reclusive CEO of dating app Badoo on his app's redesign, Bumble, and why he won't IPO any time soon". Business Insider. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
16. ^ "Andrey Andreev sells Badoo, Bumble to Blackstone at $3 billion valuation". 11 November 2019. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
17. ^ Rowan, David. "How Badoo built a billion-pound social network... on sex". Retrieved 23 October 2017.
18. ^ "The Dating Game". BBC News. 12 February 2016. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
19. ^ Albert-Deitch, Cameron (9 July 2019). "Sexual Misconduct Allegations Against Bumble's Majority Investor Threaten to Throttle the Company's Pro-Woman Cred". Inc. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
20. ^ Shearing, Stephanie K. Baer, Hazel (16 April 2019). "French Billionaires And Corporations Have Pledged At Least 600 Million Euros To Rebuild The Notre Dame Cathedral". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 19 September 2022.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
21. ^ "Billionaire with Armenian roots donating money for Notre-Dame". PanARMENIAN.Net. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
22. ^ a b Williams, Avery Hartmans, Annabelle. "How Bumble grew from a female-focused dating app to a global behemoth valued at over $8 billion after going public". Business Insider. Retrieved 17 October 2022.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
23. ^ a b c Tepper, Fitz (13 May 2018). "Whitney Wolfe Herd doesn't care what she's supposed to do". TechCrunch. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
24. ^ Crook, Jordan (9 July 2014). "The Story Of Whitney Wolfe Vs. Tinder". TechCrunch. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
25. ^ Featherstone, Emma (7 July 2017). "Whitney Wolfe: 'I'm worried we're alienating the good guys'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
26. ^ "The Russian Billionaire Cupid Behind The Biggest Dating App in the World". forbes.com. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
27. ^ a b c d O'Connor, Clare. "Billion-Dollar Bumble: How Whitney Wolfe Herd Built America's Fastest-Growing Dating App". Forbes. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
28. ^ Cook, James (8 November 2019). "Blackstone buys British dating app business Badoo, valuing it at $3bn". The Telegraph. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
29. ^ Reader, Ruth (8 November 2019). "Dating app Bumble and its sister apps are now worth $3 billion". Fast Company. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
30. ^ LaPorte, Nicole (15 July 2020). "Bumble hits 100 million users—and has new plans to take over the dating world". Fast Company.
31. ^ a b Stupples, Ben (9 November 2020). "Billionaire Bumble Seller Plans Global Launch of Talk Show App - BNN Bloomberg". BNN Bloomberg. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
32. ^ "Andrey Andreev Backs Audio-Only Social App 'Stereo' - Global Dating Insights". 2 November 2020. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
33. ^ "MagicLab billionaire Andreev to launch new mobile app business". Financial Times. 31 January 2020. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
34. ^ "Badoo founder launched competitor Clubhouse in Russia". Badoo founder launched competitor Clubhouse in Russia. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
35. ^ "An analogue of Clubhouse from the founder of Badoo launched in Russia". Tek Deeps. 26 February 2021. Retrieved 19 September 2022.