According to the Forbes’ 36th Annual World’s Billionaires List, there are 2,668 billionaires on the planet. Collectively, they are worth approximately $12.7 trillion.
Each year, new faces join the billionaires’ club. In today’s blog, we’ve mentioned a list of the ten youngest people who have made it into the Forbes 2022 list of billionaires.
The group together is worth a whopping $23.5 billion, with the youngest billionaire only 19 years old! Excited to know more about these geniuses? Then let’s get started!
Kevin David Lehmann
Kevin Lehmann is the world’s youngest billionaire at 19, with a net worth of $2.1 billion.
His father, Guenther Lehmann, and the Lehmann family own 50% of Germany’s leading drug store chain, dm (drogerie markt). It employs over 41,000 people across more than 2,000 stores throughout Germany.
Guenther had invested in dm in 1974; at the time, he was running his family’s grocery chain Pfannkuch. Neither Kevin nor his father is actively involved in the company. When Kevin was 14, his father transferred a part of the company’s stake to him, which remained under trusteeship until he turned 18.
Alexandra Andresen
Alexandra is the second daughter of Johan H. Andresen Jr. She is 26 years old and has a net worth of $1.2 billion, which makes her the world’s second youngest billionaire. Alexandra and Katharina each inherited 42% of the family-owned investment company Ferd AS.
Their father still runs the company and controls 70% of the voting rights via a dual-class share structure. Ferd AS runs hedge funds and is an active investor in the Nordic Stock Exchange.
Alexandra has won many awards and honors in horse dressage competitions. She has also modeled for the equestrian clothing company, KingsLand.
Pedro Franceschi
Pedro Franceschi, 26 years old, has a net worth of $1.5 billion. He is the co-founder and co-CEO of Brex, a fintech start-up.
Pedro met his co-founder, Henrique Dubugras, in a Twitter argument in 2012. At the time, both were in high school, living in their home country Brazil. The following year they launched a payment start-up, Pagar.me, for small businesses, which was later sold to Stone.
Both the friends attended Stanford and soon dropped out to start Brex in 2017. Pedro became a billionaire in 2022 when Brex, based in California, raised money from private investors. The company is valued at $12.3 billion.
Wang Zelong
Wang Zelong distinguished himself from everyone on this list by making money in the pigment industry rather than the IT sector. He was also Asia’s youngest billionaire at the age of 25 years; at 26, his current net worth is $1.8 billion.
Zelong comes from the City of Jiaozuo in the province of Henan, a lesser-known part of China. Very little information about him is available online, as he has a minimal digital footprint.
He made it on the Forbes list when he inherited stakes worth more than $1.3 billion. The stock was CNNC Hua Yuan Titanium Dioxide Co., a Shenzhen Stock Exchange-listed company.
Aside from this, he has stakes in London Billions Group, which produces titanium dioxide.
Henrique Dubugras
Henrique, a co-founder of Brex, began coding at the age of 12. At 26, his current net worth is $1.5 billion.
At 12, he was trying to figure out how to get video games for free as his parents wouldn’t pay for them. Henrique also developed a matchmaking program called AskMeOut when he was just 16 years old.
His only inspiration was that he wanted an easier way to date girls. The project won first place in a hackathon in 2012.
He co-founded the company Brex with his partner Pedro Franceschi, which started as a VR startup but later pivoted to fintech.
Henrique attended Stanford University to become a coder, inspired by the television show “Chuck,” but soon dropped out.
Katharina Andresen
Katharina is the daughter of Johan H. Andresen Jr. (owner of Ferd AS). The Norwegian heiress was born on 21 May 1995. As of now, she is 27 years old with a net worth of $1.2 billion.
Ferd AS is a family-owned investment firm. Johan transferred 42.2 % ownership to his daughters, Katharina and Alexandra.
Reportedly, she was once fined $32,000 for driving under the influence. The Andresen family has been a household name in Norway for over 100 years. They are mainly known for their tobacco brand, which they sold in 2005.
Austin Russell
Thiel fellow Austin Russell, founder of Luminar, is a Stanford dropout. He is now 27 years old with a net worth of $1 billion.
He applied for his first patent for a groundwater recycling system at 13. His parents introduced him to entrepreneur Jason Eichenholz, who became Russell’s mentor and, later, co-founder of Austin’s automotive sensor firm, Luminar.
Russell was hit with the idea of Luminar Technologies when he was 17 years old, studying Physics at Stanford University.
He later dropped out of college after receiving a $100,000 Thiel Fellowship, a Fellowship funded by the billionaire Peter Thiel.
The listing of Luminar on NASDAQ made Russell the world’s youngest self-made billionaire at the age of 25.
Ryan Breslow
Stanford dropout Ryan Breslow is a 28-year-old billionaire with a net worth of $2 billion.
In 2014, Breslow launched his payment startup, Bolt. He the raised $1.3 billion for Bolt, which valued the company at $11 billion. Bolt has attracted investors like Black Rock, General Atlantic, and SAP.
Besides work, Ryan is also a yoga enthusiast and loves meditation. He has initiated a four-day workweek for his 700 employees but is rarely spotted at social events.
Recently, Ryan has been in the news as he is about to launch a health-tech startup that will help decentralize Clinical trials.
Gary Wang
Gary Wang, the cryptocurrency whiz, co-founded the exchange FTX and served as Chief Technology Officer. He is 29 years old, with a net worth of $5.8 billion.
If you are a crypto enthusiast, you must have known about FTX. It is one of the leading exchanges for buying and selling crypto. The platform is known for its low trading fees, attracting traders.
It raised $400 million in January 2022 at a $32 billion valuation. Wang owns about 16% of the company.
Gary Wang is an MIT graduate with a Mathematics and Computer Science degree. He has also worked for Google, building systems to aggregate flight prices.
Gustav Magnar Witzoe
Gustav is a 29 years old billionaire with a net worth of $4.3 billion. He owns nearly half of his father’s company SalMar ASA, one of the world’s largest producers of Salmon fish.
His father founded the company in 1991. When Gustav was just 18 years old, his father made him SalMar’s main shareholder for inheritance tax purposes. The industrialization of fish farming by SalMar has resulted in higher profit margins for the company. Fish farming is one of the biggest industries in Norway.
Witzoe is also a technology startup and property investor. He previously worked for MGM property.
In the end
As we end this blog, let us recap everything we’ve discussed above.
The billionaires on this list are here for different reasons; some inherited family wealth, while others are self-made. In fact, did you know that roughly 71% of all billionaires worldwide are self-made? If that’s not inspiration, we don’t know what is!
Keep visiting the Around the World space of The Countdown List to take your daily inspiration.