The 2020 List
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Featured
Australia's richest young people: the full list revealed
Thanks the pandemic, there's been a dramatic surge in the fortunes of Australia's 100 richest people aged 40 or under. Here's the full rundown of who they are - and how they made it.
- Updated
- Michael Bailey and Julie-anne Sprague
To $3b and beyond. What’s the Zip Co special sauce?
Thanks to a pandemic tailwind, and the right partnership, Larry Diamond has zipped up the ranks of Australia’s young entrepreneurs.
- James Eyers
Fashions on the tech field: We rate six start-ups’ T-shirts
Start-up companies are all about creativity, innovation and opportunity. So how does their merch measure up?
- Lauren Sams
- No. 84
- Trends
Fresh face joins Young Rich List as skincare cleans up in pandemic
The beauty writer-turned-blogger, Instagram influencer and author has tapped into a gold mine with her lean, clean beauty regime.
- Julie-anne Sprague
Meet Australia’s newest and youngest self-made millionaires
Zoe Foster Blake is one of 18 debutants on this year's Young Rich List, which since 2003 has ranked the wealthiest self-made Australians aged 40 and under.
- Julie-anne Sprague and Michael Bailey
Featured
Calling nerds with no business experience: venture capital wants you
If a successful start-up founder is the pop star of the modern era, then today’s venture capital funds are like record label talent scouts in the early 1990s.
- Matthew Drummond and Jemima Whyte
- No. 37
- Other Passions
Forget Ferraris, this Young Rich Lister is happy with his Honda
Old-school cars were once Tim Fung’s ticket to getting around Sydney. Now they are hurtling him around the racetrack.
- Philippa Coates
- No. 36
- Pregnancy
The Young Rich Listers racing to create $1b companies
Robert Bates and Emma Gibson are in a race for unicorn status after building a $140 million fortune that pushes them onto the Young Rich List.
- Julie-anne Sprague
- Analysis
- Investing
What’s a start-up really worth?
It’s a necessary evil of this bull market that so many companies are now valued on multiples of their sales, as opposed to profits.
- Vesna Poljak
- No. 92
- Rich listers
Third Finder original joins exclusive club
Jeremy Cabral was quietly given 10 per cent of Finder when he joined in 2009. That holding has now propelled him into the Young Rich List alongside the product comparison site's co-founders.
- Michael Bailey
November 2020
- No. 55
- Construction
From playing NRL to a $347m fortune
Wes Maas debuts on this year's Financial Review Young Rich List after creating a fortune from a company he set up when he was just 22.
- Julie-anne Sprague
September 2020
- Exclusive
- Online shopping
Steve Smith hits a six-bagger with Snappr investment
The Australian cricketer, who has made a ton on paper with Koala Mattress, has also scored big with his early backing of an Aussie-founded photography marketplace.
- Michael Bailey
Pepperstone hit in 'sophisticated and multifaceted' cyber attack
Australian based derivatives and forex broker hit in a second targeted attack by cyber criminals.
- James Frost
August 2020
Airtasker's Tim Fung – from the suburbs to the Young Rich List
The co-founder and chief executive of the odd-jobs platform discovered his entrepreneurial streak by pulling out his father's grey hairs.
- Michael Bailey
Afterpay shares hit record high on $82m European deal
The fintech juggernaut will roll out its Clearpay brand across Europe after buying Spanish payments company Pagantis for €50 million.
- Jonathan Shapiro
Rich Listers Kayla Itsines and Tobi Pearce split
The couple behind the globally successful Sweat app are breaking up, just a year after pooling their investment in the company.
- Julie-anne Sprague and Michael Bailey
Young Rich Listers fly as Buildkite valued at $200m
The Melbourne-based makers of a testing tool for software developers will join the ranks of Australia's wealthiest 40-and-unders after attracting $28 million from US investors.
- Michael Bailey
BigCommerce founders bound for Rich List after sizzling IPO
From humble beginnings above a Rozelle phone shop, Eddie Machaalani and Mitchell Harper are set to burst on to the Financial Review Rich List with fortunes of about $650 million each.
- Michael Bailey
July 2020
The executives building fortunes from gold's dazzling run
A number of mining executives are getting paper rich off the back of the soaring gold price.
- Julie-anne Sprague and Robert Guy
Afterpay founders cash in as they race up the Rich List
Afterpay founders cash in on the booming success of their buy now, pay later company, bolstering their position on the Financial Review Rich List.
- Julie-anne Sprague and Michael Bailey
June 2020
- Exclusive
- Lessons from Lockdown
Tim Gurner's lockdown game changer
The Rich Lister reveals why 5.30am is the most productive part of his day and why he won't be doing much business travel when restrictions are lifted.
- Natasha Boddy
Beauty queen Kate Morris on her $100m year
Far from slowing her down, COVID-19 has taken the founder of Adore Beauty from strength to strength.
- Susan Owens
- Exclusive
- Lessons from Lockdown
Nick Bell's plan to ban long meetings
Young Rich Lister Nick Bell reveals how COVID-19 inspired a new business venture and encouraged him to abolish unnecessary meetings.
- Natasha Boddy
May 2020
Young Rich Lister shifts gears to survive
Usage has halved and 30 per cent of staff have been made redundant at highly backed shift-worker platform Deputy, but its co-founder Ashik Ahmed has a revival plan.
- Michael Bailey
April 2020
Rideshare Rich Lister pivots to delivery
Chris King's business of leasing cars to rideshare drivers put him in the express lane to riches. Now he's running just as fast to save it.
- Michael Bailey
Young Rich Lister pivots to virus-detecting airport check-in
A meeting with Hong Kong Airport in early February gave Aaron Hornlimann a head start in adapting his business for COVID-19.
- Michael Bailey
March 2020
Young Rich tips: Start a business and fail
Two entrepreneurs tell the Business Summit how they rode bandwagons on to the Young Rich List: "I'd rather take an existing business model that you can see works, and do it better."
- Michael Bailey
Listen: What I would have told my young self
Removify's Nick Bell and Joshua Fegan of Althea Group are on the Young Rich List - and this is the advice they'd give to their 18-year-old selves.
Rich Lister resigns from embattled Soar Aviation
Regulators stripped Soar of its vocational training qualifications in December, the same month one of its planes crashed in Victoria.
- Lucas Baird
February 2020
Steve Smith gets another $1.5m richer as Koala bears fruit
The Australian cricket star has made another ton of money on paper, thanks to some fast running at the mattresses-and-more e-tailer, where he was maiden investor in 2015.
- Michael Bailey
