SELF-MADE WOMEN

Just 100 of the world’s billionaires, or 4%, are women who made it on their own. That’s down from 108 a year ago. Forty-five hail from China, while 25 are U.S. citizens. Here are 10 of the 11 new self-starters. (For the 11th, see page 88.)

Melanie Perkins

$6.5 bil • Software • Australia

Australia’s youngest billionaire, the 34-year-old Perkins cofounded graphicdesign app Canva in 2013. As CEO she has led the company to 60 million monthly users and a $40 billion valuation.

Lu Yiwen

$4.4 bil • Jewelry • China

Lu cofounded jeweler Darry Ring, which claims to let customers buy just one engagement ring in their lifetime because “true love is everlasting.” Shares of DR, which IPO’d in December, are down 50%.

Yoo Jung-hyun

$2.9 bil • Online games • South Korea

Yoo helped her husband, Kim Jung-ju, who died in February, start Nexon in 1994 and build it into one of Asia’s most valuable video game companies. She owns 14%.

Rihanna

$1.7 bil • Cosmetics, music • Barbados Barbados’ first billionaire is famous for her music, but it’s her 50% stake in LVMH cosmetics line Fenty Beauty that made her rich. Additionally, her Savage X Fenty lingerie business is rumored to be eyeing a $3 billion IPO. She owns 30%.

Yu Lili

$1.7 bil • Electronics • China

Yu cofounded manufacturer Changsha Jingjia Microelectronics in 2006 with her husband. Last year the U.S. Treasury Department blacklisted the company, saying its technology was being used to track Uighur minorities in Xinjiang province.

Jenny Just

$1.5 bil • Fintech • U.S.

The former options trader, who has started or bought 15 businesses, hit a home run with her 2012 investment in Apex Fintech Solutions, which handles the back end for popular mobile trading platforms.

Marina Budiman

$1.4 bil • Data centers • Indonesia

Now 60 years old, this former banker cofounded and runs DCI Indonesia, the country’s largest operator of data centers. The company went public in January 2021.

Betty Ang

$1.2 bil • Food • Philippines

Her food giant Monde Nissin’s $1 billion

IPO last June was the Philippines’ biggestever listing. Ang and her late father-in-law founded it as a small biscuit factory in 1979.

Maria Grace Uy

$1.2 bil • Technology • Philippines

In 2007 Uy and her husband, Dennis, set up Converge ICT Solutions, now publicly traded and one of the Philippines’ largest providers of broadband internet. Uy is president; Dennis, also a billionaire, is CEO.

Even as global markets stumbled, the financeand-investments sector produced more new billionaires (45) than any other this year— including both traditional investors and fintech founders looking to disrupt the status quo. Some of the freshest financial fortunes:

Ramzi Musallam

$4 bil • Private equity • U.S.

Musallam persuaded outside investors to stick with him and his private equity firm, Veritas Capital, after founder Robert McKeon committed suicide in 2012. Since that time, Veritas has grown from $2 billion to $39.5 billion in assets.

Karthik Sarma

$3.1 bil • Hedge funds • India

Sarma’s $10 billion (assets) SRS Investment Management owns 43% of car rental company Avis, whose shares surged 456% in 2021 on news that it’s adding electric vehicles. He founded the firm in 2006 after five years at Tiger Global.

Sergio

$1.5 bil • Payments • Uruguay

Fogel Andres Bzurovski

$1.5 bil • Payments • Uruguay

The cofounders of international payments startup DLocal became Uruguay’s first billionaires when they took their fintech public in June 2021.

Kristo Käärmann

$1.4 bil • Money transfer • Estonia Käärmann, a manager at Deloitte in London, was tired of paying fat fees to send money home to Estonia. So in 2011 he cofounded Wise, which charges about 18% less than industry stalwarts. It went public in London last July.

John Kusuma

$1.2 bil • Banking • Indonesia

His family owns cigarette maker Nojorono Tobacco International, but his wealth comes from a majority stake in Bank Aladin Syariah, which he acquired over two years starting in 2019.

David Girouard

$1.2 bil • Lending platform • U.S.

Girouard is cofounder and CEO of

San Mateo, California–based Upstart Holdings. His software uses AI to assess borrowers and connect them with banks. It facilitated 1.3 million loans last year.

Harry Klagsbrun

$1.1 bil • Private equity • Sweden

The seasoned finance exec, who joined private equity firm EQT in 2006, is the Stockholm-listed company’s third billionaire. In March EQT said it’s buying Baring Private Equity Asia for $7.5 billion.

Marcelo Kalim

$1 bil • Digital bank • Brazil

Kalim, a former partner at Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual, cofounded São Paulo–based digital bank C6 in 2019; JPMorgan bought a 40% stake in it last June for an undisclosed amount.

Sixty-two newcomers join this year’s list from China (including two from Hong Kong)—a big drop from last year’s 210, but still more new billionaires than any other country. More than half owe their fortunes to manufacturing, tech or health care. Ten of the most notable:

Tang Xiao’ou

$5.7 bil • Software • Age: 54

The engineering professor cofounded AI firm SenseTime, known for its facial recognition capabilities, in 2014; U.S. investors were barred from buying shares in its Hong Kong IPO in December due to sanctions.

Chris Xu

$5.4 bil • E-commerce • 52

Fast-fashion phenom Shein, which Xu founded nearly a decade ago, is a hit with Gen Z, which loves its social media swagger and low, low prices. Backed by Sequoia China, it’s now one of the world’s most popular shopping apps.

$2.1 bil • Biotech • 63

His Zhejiang Orient Gene Biotech has thrived making Covid-19 tests. Its U.S. subsidiary Healgen made some of the 500 million free home tests that the federal government started sending out in January.

Wang Jianguo

$2 bil • Retail • 62

In the past six months, he took public two companies he founded: Huitongda Network, an e-commerce platform for momand-pop merchants in China’s secondary cities, and kid product retailer Kidswant.

Sun Hongjun

$1.9 bil • Semiconductors • 48

Sun, a telecom engineer who worked at Huawei Technologies, founded Shanghai Awinic Technology in 2008 to produce chips for cellphone manufacturers. Customers include Lenovo and Xiaomi.

Ding Shui Po

$1.4 bil • Sneakers • 51

Shares of his Nike rival Xtep nearly tripled last year after Chinese private equity firm Hillhouse Capital agreed to invest. The company, which operates a secretive running shoe lab, also owns the K-Swiss, Merrell and Saucony brands.

Xu Bingzhong

$1.4 bil • Bars • 48

In 2009, Xu opened his first English-style pub, Helen’s, in Beijing. Today his publicly traded company, Helens International Holdings, operates over 500 bars in more than 100 Chinese cities—and one in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District.

Peng Zhao

$1.3 bil • Online recruitment • 51 Tencent-backed Kanzhun, which he founded in 2014 and took public on the Nasdaq at a nearly $15 billion valuation in June 2021, is China’s leading online job recruitment site. Shares have fallen more than 50% at the money-losing firm since its IPO.