The Sunday Times Magazine - UK (2022-05-22)

THE

YOUNG RICH

They are all

aged 30 or

younger and

are already

multimillionaires

— sport, music

and films provide

57% of the Top

100 entries

1 JOHNNY BOUFARHAT

£2.06bn £614m ▲

Internet: Hopin

Boufarhat launched his video-conferencing app Hopin with perfect

timing — March 2020, just as Covid would force millions of people

to work from home. A fundraising last August valued the London-

based app at £5.6 billion, up from £4.1 billion at the start of the year.

Born in Sydney, Boufarhat came up with Hopin pre-pandemic,

when he was confined to his girlfriend’s London flat because of an

auto-immune condition. He still owns 35 per cent of Hopin’s shares

— a stake worth £1.96 billion, up more than £500 million on last year.

He has made a further £100 million from share sales over the period.

Hopin bought six tech businesses during 2021 and Boufarhat has

hinted of a New York stock market listing, fearing UK investors are

“much more conservative”. Yet Hopin has recently lost some of its

bounce: in February the virtual events platform announced 138 job

cuts — 12 per cent of its workforce. 2021: £1.446bn, 3

2 JACK SULLIVAN AND FAMILY

£1.118bn £78m ▲

Property, football and media 2021: £1.04bn, 4

3 BEN FRANCIS AND FAMILY

£900m £200m ▲

Sportswear: Gymshark 2021: £700m, 6

4 INDIA ROSE JAMES AND FAMILY

£738m £17m ▲

Property: Soho Estates 2021: £721m, 5

6 MELANIE AND DAN MARSDEN

£245m £45m ▲

Lingerie: Lounge Underwear 2021: £200m, 8

7 LEWIS MORGAN

£147m No change ■

Sportwear and property 2021: £147m, 9

8 HARRY STYLES

£100m £25m ▲

Music and films 2021: £75m, 10

9 PAUL POGBA

£77m £13m ▲

Football: Manchester United 2021: £64m, 12

10 TAYLOR FLYNN

£68m No change ■

Financial services: Creditfix 2021: £68m, 11

The identical twins Oliver and Alexander

Kent-Braham had a rocky road

naming their car insurance start-up,

Marshmallow. “We wanted something

very different that people would

remember,” Oliver said. “We just really

liked the idea of a fluffy marshmallow.”

There’s nothing soft about London-

based Marshmallow’s numbers. A £62

million fundraising exercise last year

valued it at $1.25 billion (£900 million)

— the first “unicorn” to be launched by

black British-born entrepreneurs. “When

you take a step back and look at how

much money has gone towards people

from black descent, it is really tiny,” said

Oliver, whose father is British-Jamaican.

Talented tennis players at school, the

twins competed for Great Britain at

under-16 level before abandoning plans to

turn professional and going into business.

Marshmallow insures people who

struggle to find cheap cover: young

males, those with low credit scores or

anyone living in the UK on a temporary

visa. Using big data and artificial

intelligence, the brothers’ advanced IT

identifies customers likely to be less

risky than some insurers may think.

The business has about 170 staff and

sales reached £100 million last year.

The London brothers own just over half

— a holding worth £455 million. Sweet.

5 OLIVER AND ALEXANDER KENT-BRAHAM

£455m New entry ★

Insurance: Marshmallow

48 • thesundaytimes.co.uk/richlist