A BILLIONAIRE A DAY

THIS YEAR, FORBES TRACKED DOWN A RECORD 493 NEW BILLIONAIRES— ROUGHLY ONE EVERY 17 HOURS. JUST OVER 40% HAIL FROM CHINA; 20% FROM THE U.S. PROMINENT ROUTES TO NEW RICHES: IPOS, SPACS, CRYPTOCURRENCIES AND COVID-RELATED HEALTH CARE.

IPOS

Since mid-March 2020, 1,489 IPOs (including SPACs) raised $314 billion globally. More than half went public in the U.S., where they raised $277 billion. These 10 billionaires land on the list as a result of such public offerings.

Pan Dong

$8.3 billion • Consumer goods • Canada

The richest woman new to this year’s list, she chairs laundry detergent maker Blue Moon Group Holdings, which listed in Hong Kong in December. Her husband, Luo Qiuping, is the company’s CEO.

Vyacheslav

Kim $3.3 billion • Fintech • Kazakhstan

Mikhail Lomtadze

$3.2 billion • Fintech • Georgia

CEO Lomtadze and chairman Kim have steered Kaspi—a payments, e-commerce and mobile-banking app used in Kazakhstan— from a small-time retail bank to a London public listing. Half of Kazakhstan’s 18 million people use the service.

Pablo Legorreta

$2.9 billion • Investments • U.S.

The former investment banker founded private equity firm Royalty Pharma in 1996 to buy future revenue streams of pharmaceuticals. He took it public on the Nasdaq in June.

Matt Moulding

$2.9 billion • E-commerce • U.K.

His e-commerce empire, The Hut Group, went public in London in September. Two months later he got a $1 billion share bonus that the board had approved.

Tony Xu

$2.8 billion • Food delivery service • U.S.

Xu is cofounder and CEO of food delivery company DoorDash, which listed on the NYSE in December. It delivers meals from 390,000 restaurants in the United States, Canada and Australia.

Jared Isaacman