Andrey Andreev

Andrey Andreev (; born Andrey Vagnerovich Ogadzhanyants ; 3 February 1974 ) is a Russian-born British tech entrepreneur.

In 2019, Andreev sold his 79% stake in the apps' holding company, MagicLab (now Bumble Inc.), to Blackstone Inc. at a $3 billion valuation. In 2020, he founded social audio app Stereo. His previous ventures include SpyLog, Begun, and Mamba.

Early and personal life 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.

In 2005, he moved to London, England, settling in Covent Garden.

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

Career Early entrepreneurship 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. In 2003, he sold the majority share of the company to Russian investment firm Finam Holdings and sold his remaining stake in 2004. By 2019, Badoo had 425 million registered users globally and operated in 190 countries.

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.

In a 2017 interview, Andreev claimed that Badoo had invented the popular dating application "swipe" feature.

Bumble

In 2014, Andreev contacted former Tinder marketing executive Whitney Wolfe about working together. Andreev initially offered Wolfe a role as Chief Marketing Officer at Badoo, but she refused. 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."

Per their agreement, Andreev oversaw the company's operations and leveraged Badoo's infrastructure and engineering resources. Bumble shared infrastructure with Badoo at its London office. In 2020, MagicLab was renamed Bumble Inc. after the transaction.

Stereo 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. The company has offices in London and Los Angeles, with 20 former MagicLab employees involved.