Snap co-founder Evan Spiegel added $US1.6 billion ($2.1 billion) to his fortune on Thursday after shares in the photo-sharing mobile app surged 44 per cent on their trading debut.
The blockbuster IPO cemented the 26-year-old tech entrepreneur and his Australian supermodel fiancée Miranda Kerr's status as one of the world's richest young couples.
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Snap soars at open
Snap's shares shot higher amid strong demand after the company debuted on the New York Stock Exchange.
Snap, which makes the popular messaging app Snapchat, began trading on Wall Street on Thursday, with its shares jumping from their offer price of $US17 to as much as $US26.05 during the session. They closed at $US24.48, giving the company a market value of more than $US28 billion.
The California-based company raised $US3.4 billion in the float, with net proceeds of about $US2.3 billion.
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It was this year's most-hyped technology IPO, boosting the net worth of Spiegel and his co-founder Bobby Murphy, 28, to $US5.3 billion each, and propelling them up more than 150 places on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world's 500 richest people.
The young tech stars both rang the opening bell at the NYSE, with the stock exchange decked out in Snapchat livery and Miranda Kerr in attendance on the trading floor.
Peculiarly, she later posted a photo congratulating her fiance on Instagram, another social media photo app.
Reflecting the strong investor demand, Snap on Wednesday had priced its shares above the previously projected $US14 to $US16 range.
Investors obviously were even more eager to get a piece of Snap than the company estimated -- undeterred by Snap's steep losses and slowing growth of the Snapchat user base, which skews heavily toward teens and millennials.
Last year, the app maker reported sales of $US405 million and a net loss of $US515 million.
Snapchat averaged 158 million daily active users for the fourth quarter of 2016, an increase of 48 per cent year over year but up only three per cent sequentially from 153 million in the third quarter.
Following the blockbuster float, both company founders will retain control over all shareholder decisions for Snap, with shareholders who invested in the company now having no voting rights at all.
Other winners from this week's IPO included venture capital firms Benchmark Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners, whose stakes rose $US904 million and $US613 million, respectively. Snap's senior vice president of engineering Timothy Sehn, chief strategy officer Imran Khan and chairman Michael Lynton also notched up big paydays.
However, the first-day surge may not be an indication of what happens to their fortunes from here. Twitter soared 73 per cent on its opening day yet now trades at $US15.67, 40 per cent below its IPO price.
Social network giant Facebook's listing was plagued by trading errors with the shares barely gaining on its first day before falling 31 per cent in the first year. The stock has since risen 260 per cent above the IPO price.
Snap calls itself a "camera company" and last month began selling $US130 video-enabled sunglasses nationwide.
The glasses, called Spectacles, are specifically designed to record and share 10-second circular videos for Snapchat, which is the source of virtually all the company's revenue to date.
Reuters/Bloomberg
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