Atlassian founders top Young Rich List after more than doubling their personal wealth in the last year

Atlassian founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar have more than doubled their combined personal wealth over the last 12 months, with the dynamic duo being worth over $14 billion according to the Australian Financial Review‘s 2018 Young Rich List.

The two have topped the Young Rich List, taking out the number one and two spots for the seventh year in a row, a record in the history of the list. The two have also smashed the Young Rich List’s record of highest personal wealth, breaking the record they set last year of $6.08 billion.

The two 38-year-olds, who are not only co-founders but neighbours, have seen a meteoric increase in wealth this year largely due to Atlassian’s stock price rally, which is up 40% over the past 12 months and sits at a current price of $US67 ($94). The two own over 66 million Class B shares in the company, which is listed on the NASDAQ.

Both founders have been using that immense wealth to start investing in startups both locally and abroad, with Cannon-Brooke’s Grok Ventures and Farquhar’s Skip Capital each making a number of investments over the past year, including Cannon-Brookes $100 million personal investment in autonomous car startup Zoox.

Despite the Atlassian founders’ eye-watering wealth, this year’s Young Rich List — which will be released in full tomorrow — reflects a country of young entrepreneurs doing unprecedentedly well. Out of the 100 Australians listed, 32 are involved in the technology sector and a further 14 in the fintech sector.

Coming in third behind the Atlassian duo is property developer Tim Gurner with a wealth of $631 million, followed by tech entrepreneur Ori Allon with $539 million. Though impressive results, Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar’s wealth is more than 14 times the combined wealth of the third and fourth placed rich listers.

The number of women on this year’s Young Rich List has increased slightly from last year, with 10 women featured across the 100. These include fitness entrepreneur Kayla Itsines, Envato co-founder Cyan Ta’eed, and Adore Beauty founder Kate Morris, who makes her debut on the list.

Other familiar names set to appear on the list include Canva co-founder Melanie Perkins, who shares a wealth of $177 million with co-founder Cliff Obrecht.

Dropping off the list this year is Unlockd founder Matt Berriman, who was forced to place his promising startup into voluntary administration after a court case with Google. Similarly, Getswift founder Joel Macdonald also dropped off the list due to his company’s collapse.

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