Chamath Palihapitiya And Nine Other New Billionaires Minted By The SPAC Frenzy

Chamath Palihapitiya And Nine Other New Billionaires Minted By The SPAC Frenzy

Chamath Palihapitiya, Austin Russell and Mat Ishbia are all new to this year's list thanks to SPACs. Taking a company public has long been a symbol of success for an entrepreneur, and Wall Street's favorite craze of the last 12 months helped numerous founders reap the monetary rewards of an IPO while enduring a fraction of the bureaucratic red tape. SPAC IPOs are popular because they tend to be easy wins for sponsors, hedge funds and entrepreneurs, often at the expense of retail investors who get in too late. Two SPAC sponsors join the billionaire ranks this year. Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya has a $1. 2 billion fortune following SPAC mergers with Opendoor, Virgin Galactic and Clover Health. Longtime insurance executive Bill Foley has also sponsored five SPACs and orchestrated lucrative merger deals with two of them so far. The other eight newcomers have made the three comma club by merging the companies they founded with SPACs. Here are all 10 billionaires new to the 2021 World's Billionaires list thanks to the SPAC furor. Net worth estimates are as of March 5, 2021. United Wholesale Mortgage CEO Mat Ishbia joined his dad's 11-person mortgage business in 2003 shortly after graduating