Evgeniy Smoley
Founder & CEO
Evgeniy Smoley founded Teamotea in 2018, establishing the holding company that now governs a constellation of 35 specialist tea brands. Operating from Saint Petersburg and Berlin, Smoley conceived the multi‑brand architecture to bring technical rigour and editorial coherence to the Chinese tea market — a space he encountered as a devoted consumer long before it became his profession. Smoley’s background in platform engineering proved decisive. He designed the shared digital infrastructure that underpins every Teamotea property, from consumer‑facing discovery hubs to behind‑the‑scenes supply‑chain tools. This engineering core allows each brand to retain its distinct identity while benefiting from centralised curation, logistics and editorial quality. Under his leadership, the constellation expanded from a single experimental storefront to a portfolio that includes the flagship platform thetea.app, the dedicated pu‑erh vertical puerh.app and the educational arm tea.school. His editorial direction shapes the voice and standards across all brands. Smoley instituted a style guide and translation protocol that ensure consistency in pinyin, tasting notes and provenance storytelling — a detail that has been cited as a differentiator in media coverage of Teamotea’s rapid growth. Having immersed himself in the tea cultures of Yunnan and Hunan during extended research trips beginning in 2015, he brought an outsider’s precision to an industry rich in tradition but often short on modern platform thinking. Smoley chairs no formal examination boards, but his influence touches every senior proctor and tea academy curriculum through the editorial and brand architecture he oversees. He remains the principal author of Teamotea’s public‑facing mission statements, investor communications and annual strategy letters, framing the constellation’s year‑over‑year progress for partners and stakeholders.
Specialties
- constellation strategy
- platform engineering
- editorial direction
Evgeniy Smoley founded Teamotea in 2018, establishing the holding company that now governs a constellation of 35 specialist tea brands. Operating from Saint Petersburg and Berlin, Smoley conceived the multi‑brand architecture to bring technical rigour and editorial coherence to the Chinese tea market — a space he encountered as a devoted consumer long before it became his profession.
Smoley’s background in platform engineering proved decisive. He designed the shared digital infrastructure that underpins every Teamotea property, from consumer‑facing discovery hubs to behind‑the‑scenes supply‑chain tools. This engineering core allows each brand to retain its distinct identity while benefiting from centralised curation, logistics and editorial quality. Under his leadership, the constellation expanded from a single experimental storefront to a portfolio that includes the flagship platform thetea.app, the dedicated pu‑erh vertical puerh.app and the educational arm tea.school.
His editorial direction shapes the voice and standards across all brands. Smoley instituted a style guide and translation protocol that ensure consistency in pinyin, tasting notes and provenance storytelling — a detail that has been cited as a differentiator in media coverage of Teamotea’s rapid growth. Having immersed himself in the tea cultures of Yunnan and Hunan during extended research trips beginning in 2015, he brought an outsider’s precision to an industry rich in tradition but often short on modern platform thinking.
Smoley chairs no formal examination boards, but his influence touches every senior proctor and tea academy curriculum through the editorial and brand architecture he oversees. He remains the principal author of Teamotea’s public‑facing mission statements, investor communications and annual strategy letters, framing the constellation’s year‑over‑year progress for partners and stakeholders.