Jan Koum Net Worth: Know The WhatsApp Creator’s Incredible Journey From Being A Cleaner To Billionaire

Did you ever wonder who is the CEO and co-founder of the most popular social networking app, WhatsApp? Jan Koum is the man behind the successful and raging social networking app which is being used all across the world by billions of users. When it comes to self-made billionaires then his name comes to the top of the list. He has truly an inspiring journey and his net worth speaks volumes about his hard work and growth. Currently, his net worth is close to $14 billion. Let’s know more about him, his net worth, lifestyle, journey, personal life, and assets in detail.

Jan Koum Net Worth

As per the official data released by Forbes, Jan Koum has over $14 billion of net worth which mainly derives from being a co-founder of the popular messaging app WhatsApp. Back in February 2014, he along with his co-founder sold the popular messaging app to Facebook for around $22 billion in cash and stock respectively.

According to the published data on Wikipedia, here is the expansion of his net worth since 2020.

•         In April 2020 his net worth was $9.7 billion

•         In April 2021 net worth spiked to $9.9 billion

•         In April 2022 his net worth jumped to $9.8 billion

•         In April 2023 his net worth reached $13.7 billion and close to $14 billion.

In the Forbes list of Billionaires, he comes at #130th spot.

How Did He Come Up With An Idea Of Launching WhatsApp?

It all started in the year 2009 when he bought a brand-new iPhone. That time he realized that AppStore is going to release a brand new app industry. However, he also had an idea of launching an app so he shared it with his friend Alex Fishman. Both shared a lot of ideas on the app and finally came up with the name, WhatsApp. Right after a month, he launched the app WhatsApp Inc. in California. In the beginning, the app didn’t impress anyone and didn’t even generate much popularity.

However, when Apple gave many apps the ability to use push notifications back in 2006 then it started gaining some popularity. Koum launched a new feature on WhatsApp called ‘Ping’ that notifies users on receiving any new message. After that, almost everyone in his area started using the app instead of the common SMS feature in the phone.

Slowly and gradually, WhatsApp started gaining popularity and user base. Then he asked his friend Brian Acton to join him in the company as a co-founder right after when he bought in almost $250,000 in seed funding.

After gaining success and popularity for his app WhatsApp, he decided to sell it to Facebook in 2014. And, Facebook was ready to acquire it for a whopping amount of $19 billion. He excitedly signed the papers right at the door of the welfare office.

Right in the first half of 2016, he sold over $2.4 billion of Facebook stock. In 2018, he decided to leave WhatsApp and also stepped out from the board of directors of Facebook. However, he was still working technically at Facebook and taking home $450 million in stock.

Latest News About Jan Koum

Know Jam Koum’s Assets

Since he acquired a lot of wealth after selling WhatsApp to Facebook so he invested his money in real estate, cars, and many more things. Let’s quickly take a look at his assets closely.

Real Estate

When it comes to his real estate assets, he moved from a modest house in Ukraine to California with his mother. In the early days, he used to sweep floors at local grocery stores and her mother used to clean houses. After getting the whooping success for his hard work, he started building a real estate empire.  Today, Jam Koum has around $450 million of properties in California where he used to stay in a small two-bedroom sharing apartment.

When it comes to bifurcations, he has a $100 million compound in Atherton town in Northern California. In fact, to make the compound he spent over $57 million in the tenure of 4 years. He has acquired over 5.6 acres of the most luxurious and expensive real estate property in the U.S. He designed a customized compound by razing off the existing structures and spent almost $20 million just on the site.

His house in Atherton spreads over 3700 square-foot that he bought in the year 2015 for a whopping amount of $8.8 million.

He also owns a lavish real estate property in Down Malibu that costs around $200 million. Also, he owns a 14, 400 square-foot home right on the clifftop bluff over Malibu’s Escondido beach that costs around $100 million. He purchased it from Ron Meyer who is a popular entertainment executive.

Moreover, he bought the Beverly Hills mansion of Jeffrey Katzenberg for a whopping amount of $125 million in September 2020.

Car Collection

When it comes to his car collection then its gigantic. In fact, he has built over a 10,000-square-foot garage in his home in Atherton. Being an ardent car lover, he owns a prime line of Ferraris along with air-cooled Porsches. His garage is full of luxurious sports cars, including a Ferrari F12berlinetta, a Ferrari F12tdf along with many more Ferraris.

To accommodate his car collection, he also has a warehouse nearby where he keeps some more Ferrari models.

Know About Jan Koum’s Early Life

Jan Koum was born on 24th February 1976 in Kyiv, Ukraine, when it was a part of Soviet Union. However, he was raised in the city of Fastiv. At the young age of 16, he moved to Mountain View California in the year 1992 along with his mother and granny.  He took the help of social support program and shifted to a shared two-bedroom apartment. He used to work as a sweeper in a local grocery store and his mother used to clean houses in the early struggling days.

At the age of 18, he started learning programming and joined San Jose State University. He started his career working as a security tester at one of the leading companies Ernst & Young. While working in this company, he met his friend Brian Acton. While doing programming, he also became a member of one of the hackers group called W00w00 where he also met one of the founders of Napster.

 In 1997, he started working as an infrastructure engineer for one of the leading companies, Yahoo. After working for a while, he left his school and pursued his job full-time. He worked for Yahoo for almost 9 years along with his friend Brian Acton. Surprisingly, they both also applied for a job on Facebook but got rejected.

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