Meet The Billionaires Who Cashed In On IPOs In 2020 | Forbes

Public markets were taking a beating when Forbes finalized the World Billionaires’ list on March 18, 2020. The S&P 500 had cratered 29 percent from its February 19 high while the world ground to a Covid-imposed halt. Companies like Airbnb and Warner Music Group, who had planned much anticipated IPOs in 2020, sought shelter from the storm instead.

Things couldn’t be more different this year. After a strong rebound in the second half of 2020 that has continued into 2021, public markets are booming, and plenty of entrepreneurs are getting in on the action.

Among the record 493 new billionaires on this year’s list, Forbes found at least 60 who have joined the list thanks to IPOs.

Over the past year, 1,489 public offerings raised $314 billion globally, up from 1,239 IPOs and $234 billion in the previous year.

Big names like food-delivery company DoorDash went public in December, turning its cofounder and chief executive, Tony Xu, and his two cofounders into billionaires.

Woman-centric dating app Bumble went public on the Nasdaq in February. The IPO made Bumble’s cofounder and CEO, Whitney Wolfe Herd, the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire, at age 31, with a current net worth of $1.1 billion.

Bang Shi-hyuk, the founder of music label and agency Hybe Corp. which represents the popular K-pop band BTS, is currently worth $3.1 billion. He took the company, previously known as Big Hit Entertainment, public on the Korea Exchange in October. Two months before the IPO, BTS became the first Korean band to top the Billboard Hot 100 with “Dynamite”, their first song entirely in English.

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