Tatyana Bakalchuk

Tatyana Vladimirovna Bakalchuk (Татья́на Влади́мировна Бакальчу́к; Kim, Ким, 김; born on 16 October 1975) is a Russian entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Wildberries, the largest Russian online retailer, and the country's first self-made woman billionaire.

In October 2023, her fortune was estimated at $7 billion.

In 2021, the government of Ukraine imposed sanctions over Tatyana and Vladislav Bakalchuk and Wildberries for selling Russian military uniforms and anti-Ukrainian literature.

In 2022, Poland also imposed sanctions on Wildberries and Bakalchuk because of the latter’s connections with VTB Bank.

Tatiana Bakalchuk was born on October 16, 1975, in a Koryo-saram family.

She finished school in Moscow oblast and graduated from Kolomna University.

She planned to move to Moscow and continue her education as a designer.

Still, she had to abandon that plan and return to teaching English when the 1998 financial crisis struck Russia.

Tatyana Bakalchuk was an English teacher.

In the early 2000s, she met her future husband Vladislav Bakalchuk, an entrepreneur and a founder of Utech ISP.

In 2003, the shopping center’s address was listed in the contacts of the D-Luxe catalog made by Bakalchuk’s and Fadeev’s UT Design studio.

Contrary to this, Wildberries claims that the second-hand store was not affiliated with the company.

In 2004, after giving birth to her first child, Bakalchuk launched Wildberries, which initially focused on reselling apparel from Otto and Quelle catalogs.

According to the company’s official history, Bakalchuk started the business without capital, experience, or professional education.

However, she obtained starting capital from her husband, Vladislav Bakalchuk.

Notably, this sum was estimated at several million dollars.

Shortly before that, he sold the Internet provider UTech to Gazprombank for 7,5 million dollars.

The Bell's source claims that the Bakalchuks did not initially sell clothes solely from Otto or Quelle catalogs.

Namely, they also sold garments in a second-hand store in the “Dynamite” shopping center in the Vykhino-Zhulebino District.

The store was marketed as an outlet with 1000 models of second-hand clothes from Europe.

Some of the items were also distributed through a webpage.

By 2006, Wildberries got an office in Milkovo, Moscow region, a team of couriers, phone operators, and an IT crew.

By that time, the company started to sell apparel by small local European brands and the excess stock of old collections of well-known brands.

Wildberries was among the first Russian e-commerce companies to offer a flat delivery rate and free try-on and to build a network of pick-up points with fitting rooms.

During the 2014—2016 financial crisis, Wildberries switched to a platform business model (the one employed by Amazon).

Moreover, Tatyana Bakalchuk established WILDBERRIES HOLDINGS LTD in Cyprus in 2018.

Tatiana and Vladislav Bakalchuk own Wildberries.

By 2022, according to a Data Insight report, Wildberries was the largest e-store in Russia.

In 2019, the company's value was estimated at $1 billion, which made Bakalchuk the second woman in Russia to become a billionaire, and by 2020, she became the wealthiest woman in Russia, worth $1.4 billion.

Forbes US edition praised Bakalchuk as one of the most notable new billionaires.

By 2021, her fortune grew by 800% (compared to 2020) to $13 billion.

It is believed that Denis Manturov and Mikhail Mishustin are the patrons of Wildberries.

By 2020, the company operated over 7,000 pick-up points.

The company benefited from the dramatic increase in online orders during the COVID-19 pandemic (starting in 2020).

Headed by Manturov, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade drafted a government decree in 2020.

The decree proposed to subsidize Russian marketplaces’ logistics expenses.

The absence of foreign shareholders was the primary condition for receiving governmental support.

Consequently, only one marketplace – Wildberries – could meet these criteria.

Moreover, in 2020, Tatyana Bakalchuk acquired Standard-Credit Bank, which Samvel Karapetyan's Tashir Holding previously controlled.

The bank was renamed Wildberries Bank.