John Collison of Stripe is the youngest self made billionaire to make the Forbes Rich List, in a year when the number of billionaires rose 13% to 2,043.
The Collison brothers, John and Patrick, made their first entry on the annual list with an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion apiece. At age 26, younger brother John qualifies as the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, just two months younger than Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel.
With a mission to transform the online payments industry, Stripe was founded in 2010 with backing from Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and Sequoia Capital. A recent $150 million funding round from CapitalG, an investment division of Google parent company Alphabet, and General Catalyst Partners, put a $9.2 billion price tag on the company and propelled the Collison brothers into the Forbes Rich List.
In total, there are 183 tech billionaires on the Forbes list, with a combined $1tn in wealth.
Topping the charts for the financial services industry is Michael Bloomberg, who ranks tenth thanks to a $47.5 billion fortune.
Other financial industry notables include Jack Ma, Alibaba's CEO, who makes it to number 23 with an estimated net worth of $28.3 billion.