When it comes to technology and start-ups Russia can be full of mystery and surprises. First we learned this summer about an attractive Russian spy - Anna Chapman - infiltrating entrepreneurial scene in New York. Now there is a a serial entrepreneur who hides behind a fake indentity while his latest start-up is preparing for an IPO. It's the second story that is of interest here. The entrepreneur in question, who prefers to call himself Andrey Andreev (though some sources claim his real surname is Andrey Ogandzhanyants [Андрей Оганджанянц]) founded four tech start-ups since 1999, his latest one - a dating service named Badoo - is preparing to file for an IPO on London Stock Exchange. The service has about 80 million registered users and company's revenue is estimated to reach $200 million this year. Why is it that Andreev is hiding from the limelight and using a false name?

The answer to that question is hard to find but Andreev's professional track record is even more intriguing. He founded his first start-up -  a web-analytics service called SpyLog - in early 2000. Andreev left the company in 2002 to build his second start-up: a contextual advertising service Begun (SpyLog was sold to Activist for about $3 million in 2007). Begun was also a revolutionary service in the Russian market and only a year after its launch, Andreev sold 80% of the company to Finam Capital for $900 000.

Finally time came for Andrey to build his third tech start-up - a dating service called Mamba. Badoo, the fourth start-up Andreev launched a couple of years later, was an almost direct copy of Mamba. The biggest difference Mamba (and later Badoo) has from other dating services is their business model. According to Forbes.ru, instead of relying on subscription fees or advertising, Mamba made use of micropayments through SMS. Users can join the service for free but have to spend a couple of bucks if they want to boost their profile's ranking or get a spot on the frontpage. Exact same principal of micropayments (based on people's vanity) was later implemented in Badoo. Mamba was acquired by Finam Capital in 2005 for $20 million and Andreev moved to London and founded Badoo in 2006 (Mail.ru bought a 30% stake in Mamba for $18 million in 2007).

One year into its operations Badoo got 12 million registered users and a year later a 10% stake in the company was sold yet again to Finam Capital for $30 million. The investment justified itself as Badoo today has six times more users and is preparing for an IPO. Mamba is still bigger than Badoo in Russia but Badoo is dominating markets in Central Europe and Latin America. Badoo's biggest direct competition worldwide comes from Friend Finder Networks that have >100 million users and $244 million revenue (but have not filed for an IPO yet).

Considering how many well-known services Andreev has built, it is astonishing how little information there is out there about him. Forbes.ru claims Andrey avoided publicity in the Russian media due to concerns for his personal and his business's safety. Living in the UK for the past 5 years does not seem to have changed that conviction. One can only hope that Russia's future talent feels safer to reveal themselves once they build something as successful.

Image by Sinead Fenton