#163
Jan Koum
Overview
- Source of Wealth
- Industry
- Technology
- Residence
- Atherton, California
- Education
- San Jose State University (Drop Out)
- Marital Status
- Single
Assets
- Meta Platforms3,713,598 shares @ --META-US
Biography
Jan Koum cofounded WhatsApp, now the world's biggest mobile messaging service, in 2009.
Facebook bought the startup for $22 billion in cash and stock in 2014.
He resigned as CEO of WhatsApp in 2018 and announced he would leave Facebook's board as well.
Koum worked at Yahoo for nearly nine years before leaving to found WhatsApp.
Now, he invests through his firm Newlands, which holds nearly 10 million shares of Facebook's parent company Meta and is building a portfolio of startups.
About
Koum immigrated to California from Ukraine with his mother at age 16 and swept floors to make ends meet.
Koum signed the deal to sell WhatsApp to Facebook in an abandoned building where he once collected food stamps as a teenager.