No. 148United States
Jan Koum
WhatsApp · Atherton, California
Net worth
$18.6B
Today
−$2M−0.01%Past month
−$338M−1.79%As of Nov 11, 2026, 1:50 PM EST
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.
Net worth over time
−1.79%−$338M over the past month
$19B$19B$18B
Oct 12Nov 11
Principal holdings
2 positions| Company | Industry | Share | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
Private and other holdings | Technology | 88.6% | $16.4B |
Meta Platforms NASDAQ: META | Technology | 11.4% | $2.1B |
Also known for
- 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.
“I want to do one thing and do it well.”