Former Coffee Meets Bagel CTO Joins Esports Sponsorship Company

Former Coffee Meets Bagel CTO Karim Valera has been announced as the new VP of Technology at an esports sponsorship company.

FanAI delivers in-depth audience analytics across multiple variables, including reach, demographic and viewer spend, to help brands connect with esports teams and players to form partnerships that benefit all parties.

It also revealed Randy Stude as its VP of Sales Marketing, who had previously spent 13 years at Intel Corporation.

Valera initially served as Director of Engineering at Tinder before joining Coffee Meets Bagel in September 2014. During his three years at the dating app, he saw the engineering team grow from 10 to 25 members.

He has also acted as an advisor for the DNA dating service Pheramor, where he assisted with the initial development of the technology and product strategy.

Speaking about the new hires, FanAI CEO Johannes Waldstein said in a statement: “As we expand our model to reach new markets, our in-house talent needs to grow alongside our strategic business objectives. 

“Both Karim and Randy will be integral to our continued growth, as they truly represent the next evolution of FanAI, both on the backend as well as consumer-facing fronts.”

Tinder has been an official partner of professional esports team ‘Made in Brazil’ since June 2018.

Coffee Meets Bagel introduced two new premium features last month, which included an option to allow users to have an unlimited number of swipes per day. 

While for some this appeared to be a step away from the product’s original quality over quantity approach, co-CEO Dawoon Kang believes that if singles are showing a commitment to dating they should be allowed to browse as many profiles as they want.

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