Badoo - the matchmaker from Russia with love - Telegraph They call from table to table, group to group, talk about something, drink mojitos, go to another ...It was a fun evening because we met three girls. We spend maybe another four hours somewhere, different places, clubs, bars - but then leave. When Badoo launched in 2006, Andreev planned a social network in the Facebook mould, allowing users to communicate with their existing circle of friends, but his night out in St Petersburg two years later set it along a different course. "There are more people that you don't know than that you know," Andreev says. It is mainly about meeting new people for any type of adventure.Go to cinema together, go for lunch together. Let's say you are a secretary on reception with nothing to do, you can search a few blocks away and think, this is a nice good looking guy, we can have lunch together. You can chat. I don't know According to Badoo, 12pc of users have got into a serious relationship with someone they've met on the site, and 2pc have subsequently got married. The app is free to use and there is no advertising, per se. Instead it makes its money from users effectively advertising themselves. A £1 payment will shoot them to the top of the site until the next user knocks them off - usually a couple of seconds - or they can pay to push their way up other users" inboxes of messages by buying a virtual present. There is also a paid-for stealth mode, whereby users can browse other people's profiles - without letting them know - and a subscription for greater functionality. "Having small revenue from 10m users a month is better than a big contract with Coca-Cola," Andreev says. He speaks in staccato bursts interspersed with bashful pauses, as he defers to one of his minders for the right English phrase. It is clear he is unused to being interviewed. In 2010, Russian Forbes called him the "most mysterious businessmen in the West," so averse was he to the spotlight, also claiming his original name was Andrey Ogandzhanyants. Even at 38, he looks young for his years, but he behaves even younger still, in a way that is quite at odds with what one might expect of a serial entrepreneur whose business is tipped to be worth $2bn (£1.26bn). He spends most of our interview twisting restlessly in his seat or slouching over the table, and at one point asks my permission to go to the toilet. He's keen to impress, though. There is talk of conducting the interview over a lunch that he would cook at a flashy London restaurant, and he eschews his Simon Cowell-style uniform of white T-shirt and jeans for his photograph, instead opting for a deliberately madcap oversized bow tie. Leaning across a boardroom table, Andreev scrolls through sample screen shots from Badoo on his mobile. Men and women who could easily find careers as catalogue models flick by, expressing interest in good company, adventure and long walks. A play around with the live version reveals a less aesthetically appealing pool of users. But while Badoo might not be entirely wholesome, it delivers some impressive statistics. It barely registers in the UK, but has become a phenomenon in Brazil, Mexico, France and Spain, helping to attract nearly 140m registered users worldwide - a figure growing by more than 150,000 a day. Some 35m of those users are active within any given month. Its annual revenues now tip over $150m (£95m), and it has been in profit for the last two years. "Lots of financial people say we are the most profitable [technology] start-up in Western Europe today," Andreev says, adding that - based on approaches from private equity firms keen to get in on the act - the business is now valued at $2bn. Russia's Finam Technology Fund bought 10pc of the company for $30m in 2007 and a further 10pc for an undisclosed sum last year. The remainder is held by Andreev and Badoo's senior management. It is all starting to sound a little bit sales pitch but, on the eve of a month-long networking trip to Silicon Valley, Andreev insists he has no intention of selling. We have a lot of people interested to be part of Badoo but Badoo doesn't need money, so we're not planning to get any investment. "We focus now on growing the company as make as big as we can," he adds. There is no initial public offering in the works either, he says, not altogether convincingly - although he does admit this is the most likely course if a deal is eventually done. We are not sure about IPO, but never say never. Badoo is getting bigger and bigger, and I think IPO could be the only option for Badoo pretty soon [because it is too big for most companies to acquire]. We're not thinking about this because only thing for us is to go to new markets, to make bigger. Britain is the next big ambition. Badoo's growth in Spain really hit the gas when the company acquired a suite of established social and dating networks, allowing badoo to piggyback on their established network of users, and Andreev is eyeing a similar route over here. Cracking the UK would act as a bridge into the US, and allow Badoo easily to triple its user database, he reckons. We are in the level of investigation... "The number one goal today is to become the biggest meeting place on the planet," Andreev says. It's a big job. He's not wrong. The jury's is out on whether he can come close.