ABOUT TAPINATOR
A team building mobile games together since 2007.
Tapinator was founded in 2014 by a team that's been building mobile games and applications together since 2007 — the same group behind Familybuilder, one of the first successful Facebook applications. Today, our portfolio of mobile games has been downloaded over 500 million times by players around the world.
Meet the Team
Ilya Nikolayev
CEO & CO-FOUNDER
Ilya Nikolayev is an accomplished technology executive who previously served as the CEO and Co-Founder of Familybuilder. In 2007, Mr. Nikolayev created one of the first successful Facebook applications, Family Tree, and grew the property to over 6 million monthly active unique users and 45 million total users. Mr. Nikolayev raised venture capital funding, grew the business to profitability, and successfully sold Familybuilder to Intelius in 2011, generating a significant return for all of its investors. Mr. Nikolayev was also a co-founder at InAppFuel, a patented minigame software for mobile game developers that was sold to Tapinator in 2014. Prior to Familybuilder, Mr. Nikolayev worked in banking for JP Morgan. Mr. Nikolayev is a frequently cited industry expert who has appeared on Fox Business, Bloomberg, and TheStreet. Mr. Nikolayev graduated cum laude from New York University.
Andrew Merkatz
PRESIDENT & CO-FOUNDER
Andrew Merkatz is a finance executive with 25+ years of experience as an operator and investor in media and technology growth companies. Mr. Merkatz was previously a Managing Director of Investments at Vision Capital where he managed investments in digital media and software technology. Mr. Merkatz began his career at private equity firm, Interlaken Capital where he focused on industrial distribution, industrial service and dairy companies. He later served as Chief Operating Officer for Site-Specific, one of the first internet advertising agencies (sold to CKS Group), Vice President of Corporate Development at FLOORgraphics, a pioneering in-store media company (sold to News Corp.), and President of Predict It, the first online prediction market. In 2007, Mr. Merkatz co-founded Familybuilder, a leading Facebook app developer, which was sold to Intelius in 2011. Mr. Merkatz currently serves on the board of directors of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Merkatz holds a B.A. in Economics, with distinction, from the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.