Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek is importance over $2 billion following the company’s trading debut on the NYSE.
Ignoring Spotify’s shares coming off their initial highs Tuesday, Ek’s 9 percent move on in the company has soared in value over the past week. It’s now worth $2.3 billion.
Co-founder Martin Lorentzon is now good more than $3 billion. Spotify’s total valuation hit a piercing of $30.5 billion but has now settled back to around $26 billion.
In the face his newfound paper fortune, Ek isn’t likely to go on a Ferrari or yacht-buying binge. Ek, 35, started his beforehand tech company when he was 14, and made his first fortune when he was 23, after shop-girl his online ad company Advertigo. After the sale, he enjoyed the usual sudden-wealth-syndrome excesses — he bribe a Ferrari, partied and went to nightclubs in Stockholm in his native Sweden.
But all the percentage and gold diggers left him depressed. As he told the New Yorker: “I had always wanted to be a member of and I had been thinking that this was going to get solved when I had spinach, and instead I had no idea how I wanted to live my life.”
So he moved to a small lodge outside Stockholm and after he and his pal Lorentzon were talking about music, they finally came up with the idea for their music streaming service.
Now he last wishes as join the roughly 60 billionaires in the world under the age of 40. Ek advances a low-key life: he doesn’t receive a base salary but is eligible for $1 million annual hand-outs depending on the company’s growth. According to The Wall Street Journal, he splits his speedily between Stockholm and New York and is often spotted with his two kids at the playground.