Yahoo Finance Aussie named richest self-made female billionaire under 40
Move over Rihanna, Canva founder Melanie Perkins has been named the richest self-made billionaire under 40.
According to Bloomberg’s billionaire index, Perkins is 487th richest person in the world, but jumps right into first place for those self-made women under the age of 40.
After completing a new funding round last week, graphic design company Canva is now worth $54.7 billion (US$40 billion).
This means the 34-year-old Perkins, and her 35-year-old husband and co-founder Cliff Obrecht, have a fortune of $8 billion each.
Who are the richest self-made women?
In April this year Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd became the richest self-made female billionaire after a highly successful initial public offering (IPO).
Rihanna also entered the billionaire’s club earlier this year with a whopping US$1.7 billion - making her the wealthiest female musician, and second only to Oprah Winfrey, as the richest female entertainer.
Kylie Jenner also made headlines after she had her youngest self-made billionaire title stripped off her by Forbes.
Forbes said Jenner had inflated the “size and success” of her business, with her AU$880 million (US$587 million) sale earlier this year laying the details bare.
Perkins now joins the ranks of some of the richest women in the world. According to Forbes, there are only two other self-made females under the age of 40 in the US, being Wolfe Herd and Rihanna with a net worth of $2.3 billion.
Richest Australians
Perkins and her husband have joined the list of Australia’s top 10 richest people.
The top 10 richest Aussies according to Bloomberg are:
Scott Farquhar - $33.6 billion
Mike Cannon-Brookes - $33.6 billion
Gina Rinehart - $25.4 billion
Andrew Forrest - $21.4 billion
Harry Triguboff - $14.6 billion
Anthony Pratt - $12.3 billion
Frank Lowy - $10.2 billion
Ivan Glasenberg - $8.2 billion
Cliff Obrecht - $8 billion
Melanie Perkins - $8 billion
While most of those on the list have made their money through commodities and mining, the rich list has seen more tech-focused Aussies join the ranks - such as Farquhar and Cannon-Brookes who founded software company Atlassian.
Where does Perkins sit compared to the world’s richest people?
Of course these overachieving Australians still have quite a way to go to catch up the world's richest overall, with the number one spot going to Elon Musk who is currently worth around $277.7 billion.
The top 10 richest people in the world are:
Elon Musk - $277.7 billion
Jeff Bezos - $268 billion
Bernard Arnault - $220 billion
Bill Gates - $183 billion
Mark Zuckerberg - $175 billion
Larry Page - $171 billion
Sergey Brin - $165.5 billion
Steve Ballmer - $146 billion
Larry Ellison - $140.9 billion
Warren Buffett - $136.2 billion
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