Forbes Middle East English Issue - November 2021

Page 26

The Forbes 400

A billion dollars—or even a couple billion—doesn’t hack it anymore. With a record $2.9 billion cutoff, 353 American billionaires have fortunes too small to qualify for this year’s Forbes 400. Jenny Just

Tony Xu 37

Doordash • $2.8 billion Stanford alumnus cofounded the food delivery firm in 2013 to shuttle takeout around campus.

Vlad Tenev 34

Robinhood Markets • $2.7 billion Bulgarian native cofounded the popular online stock trading platform in 2013.

Jared Isaacman 38

Payment processing • $2.6 billion The former stunt pilot commanded SpaceX’s first civilian mission to orbit Earth in September.

Daniel Sundheim 44

Hedge funds • $2.5 billion His hedge fund firm, D1 Capital Partners, manages an estimated $20 billion in assets.

Chetan Dube 55

Technology • $2.4 billion Former NYU math prof founded AI firm Amelia, known for its eponymous chatbot.

Austin Russell 26

W

ith a sky-high cutoff, even famous faces came up short: Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, Uber’s Travis Kalanick and Revlon’s Ron Perelman aren’t worth enough to make this year’s Forbes 400. Of the 122 Americans who became billionaires in the past year, only 27 made the list—but many more are on their way up. One newly minted billionaire worth watching is 53 year old prolific investor and entrepreneur Jenny Just. Over the past 24 years, she has started or bought 15 companies in industries ranging from insurance (National Flood Services) and video games (esports team Evil Geniuses) to options trading (Peak6 Capital Management). The biggest deal of her career will happen later this year, though. Her star investment, Apex Fintech Solutions—which handles backoffice operations for mobile trading apps, roboadvisors and more—is slated to go public via a SPAC merger that values the company at $4.7 billion. That transaction, which made her a billionaire, boosted her net worth to $1.5 billion. “I think it’s critical that women make decisions around money,” says Just, who was a single mother when she cofounded the parent company, Peak6, in 1997. F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

Sensors • $2.1 billion The world’s youngest selfmade billionaire came up with the idea for Luminar Technologies, which makes gear for selfdriving cars, at age 17.

Whitney Wolfe Herd 32

Dating app • $1.5 billion Ladies first! Tinder cofounder Wolfe Herd started Bumble, a dating app on which men are forbidden from making the first move, in 2014. Its parent company went public in February.

Carl Hansen 47

Biotech • $1.2 billion His AbCellera specializes in finding antibodies that can be developed into drugs.

Kim Kardashian West 40

Cosmetics, reality TV • $1.2 billion She is famous from television. She is rich from makeup company KKW Beauty and undergarment business Skims.

NOVEMBER 2021

BY JENNIFER WANG. GUERIN BLASK FOR FORBES (LEFT)

FRONTRUNNER

24

RICH—BUT NOT RICH ENOUGH


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