Forbes released its latest ranking of the richest individuals in the world and a lot of them are people who gained their wealth through tech or in tech-related fields.
This is no surprise as the tech industry has grown tremendously in the last few years both in Nigeria and in the rest of the world.
According to the list, 7 out of the 10 richest people in the world amassed their wealth through their work in tech or tech-related fields from electric vehicles to software development, amongst others.
However, the growth did not apply to everyone working in the tech field as some of them lost a lot of their wealth in the last year.
Here are a few tech entrepreneurs who fell off the billionaires list in the last year:
1. RJ Scaring
Scaringe is the founder and CEO of the electric vehicle manufacturer, Rivian. Last year he had a net worth of $3.4 billion but now his net worth currently sits at just under $700 million.
As of last year, Rivian was performing at a stellar rate with a valuation of $90 billion, having raised a record $23.1 billion dollars. It raised $11.2 billion as a privately held company and later amassed $11.9 billion in its initial public offering (IPO) in November.
Sadly, Scaringe has been experiencing difficulty ramping up production which has led to shares in the company falling by a whopping 64%.
2. Whitney Wolfe Herd
Herd is the founder and CEO of Bumble, a popular online dating platform. She became the youngest self-made billionaire last year when she took the platform public with an IPO of $43 per share. As of last year, she had a net worth of $1.3 billion but she is currently worth less than $700 million.
Sadly, after the IPO, Bumble shares have not performed well, falling by more than 72%.
3. John Foley
Foley is a business executive and co-founder of Peloton, American exercise equipment, and media company. Foley’s wealth was capped at $1.5 billion last year but now he is worth less than $400 million.
He suffered from a bout of bad PR when two beloved fictional characters (Mr. Big from Sex and the City and Mike “Wags” Wagner from Billions) suffered fictional heart attacks while exercising on Peloton fitness bikes.
Another reason for the reduced patronage that Peloton currently suffers is most of its customers have returned to gyms as COVID restrictions worldwide have been eased which has led the company to scale back production and lay off some of its workers.
