Snap cofounders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy added a combined $2.8 billion to their fortunes on Thursday -- and became the only self-made billionaires in the world under the age of 30 to own a publicly traded company.
Snap Inc. –the parent of social network Snapchat - debuted on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday in the most anticipated tech IPO in years. On Wednesday night, Snap set a price of $17 per share, valuing the company at $24 billion. Thursday morning, Snap opened at $24, up 41% from Wednesday night's pricing. Snap stock rose another 3% throughout the day on Thursday, closing at $24.48 per share and valuing Snap at $28.3 billion.
Spiegel and Murphy, who each have an 18% stake in the company, each ended the day with a $5.4 billion fortune. Each founder sold 16 million shares in the IPO, likely netting $200 million a piece after assumed taxes. FORBES had previously estimated their fortunes at $4 billion based on the social media company's latest private valuation of $18 billion. Because of a unique voting structure at Snap, the pair controls 88.5% of the company's voting rights. None of the Class A shares sold in the IPO today had voting rights, ensuring that Spiegel and Murphy will retain control of the company.
Spiegel and Murphy have had a speedy rise up the ranks of the world's richest people. Spiegel first appeared on the Forbes Billionaires List in March 2015 with an estimated $1.5 billion net worth; Snapchat was then valued by private investors at $10 billion. At age 26, Spiegel was the world's youngest self-made billionaire until Stripe cofounder John Collison, who is two months his junior, joined the Billionaires List in November 2016.
Snap's initial success on the public market--and the jump in Spiegel and Murphy's fortunes--is likely a welcome sign for the 16 billionaires in the United States whose fortunes are tied to highly valued unicorn startups, including Uber, Airbnb, Palantir and Stripe.