Meet Russia’s richest woman, the self-made billionaire who started her e-commerce company while on maternity leave

• Tatyana Bakalchuk is the richest woman in Russia, with an estimated fortune of $7.4 billion.

• She founded the online store Wildberries, the Russian version of Amazon, which sells a wide range of products.

• Bakalchuk is developing a payments platform to strengthen the Russian economy in the face of international sanctions.

In 2004, Tatyana Bakalchuk spent $700 to create a website for Wildberries, an e-commerce company she founded in her Moscow apartment while on maternity leave.

Today, Wildberries is considered the Russian equivalent of Amazon, a dynamically developing online store that earned $6 billion in 2023, and Bakalchuk is the richest woman in Russia, Bloomberg reports.

However, despite her enormous wealth, 48-year-old Bakalchuk does not attract attention and apparently lives modestly – she apparently does not have a house, preferring to rent.

This is how Bakalchuk earns and spends his fortune.

Forbes reports that Tatyana Bakalchuk’s net worth is estimated at $7.4 billion, making her the richest woman in Russia.

Bakalchuk was born in the Moscow Oblast in 1975 and, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, studied at the Kolomna State Pedagogical Institute.

She and her husband, IT entrepreneur Vladislav Bakalchuk, have seven children.

She founded the online store Wildberries in 2004 while on maternity leave from her job as an English teacher.

Wildberries started as a small clothing resale venture from the German retail company Otto. In 2018, Bakalchuk told Bloomberg that in the early days of the company she made deliveries herself.

“In the beginning, I did everything myself, I picked up the goods and delivered them by metro or bus to customers at the other end of Moscow,” she said.

As the business grew, Bakalchuk began hiring delivery workers and renting space to store more inventory.

According to Bloomberg, Russian bodybuilder Sergei Anufriev invested in Wildberries in 2006. Bakalchuk owns 99% of the company and her husband owns 1%.

In 2020, The Bell reported that Vladislav Bakalchuk made $5 million by selling shares of the internet provider, raising questions about Bakalchuk’s status as a self-made billionaire. Wildberries representatives informed the portal that the money was not intended to establish Wildberries.

The story continues

In 2023, Wildberries earned $6 billion, with gross merchandise volume of $27.8 billion.

Wild berry supplies according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, they offer products from over 60,000 brands, offering a wide range of products including clothing, electronics and home appliances.

The retailer launched in Europe in 2021, expanding to Germany, Italy, Spain and France, “Moscow Journal”. reported.

Despite his billionaire status, Bakalchuk keeps a low profile and has no home.

In a 2018 interview with AFP, Bakalchuk described herself as “closed to herself.”

Unlike other billionaires who live in sprawling mansions, Bakalchuk rents an apartment instead of owning a house, Bloomberg reports.

Bakalchuk’s latest venture will be to create an alternative payment platform that will help strengthen Russia’s economy in the face of international sanctions.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, known as SWIFT, banned seven Russian banks in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In a joint statement condemning the invasion, European Commission members said the ban “will ensure that these banks are disconnected from the international financial system and harm their ability to operate on a global scale.”

In June, Bloomberg reported that Bakalchuk would work with ad operator Russ Group to develop a new digital commerce platform as an alternative to SWIFT. The project will be overseen by Maksim Oreshkin, Russia’s former minister of economic development, who was personally selected for the task by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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