Snap co-founders' worth is $5.3 bn each after IPO

Company raised $3.4 bn in Wednesday's initial public offering when it sold 200 million shares for $17 each

Snap Inc’s Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy each added $1.6 billion to his fortune on Thursday after shares in the photo-sharing mobile app closed at $24.48, 44 per cent above their listing price.

Investor appetite for the first technology listing of the year boosted the net worth of each co-founder to $5.3 billion, propelling Spiegel, 26, and Murphy, 28, up more than 150 places on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world’s 500 richest people.

Other winners from the offering included venture capital firms Benchmark Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners, whose stakes rose $904 million and $613 million respectively. Snap’s senior vice president of engineering Timothy Sehn, chief strategy officer Imran Khan and chairman Michael Lynton also notched up big paydays.

The first-day jump may not be an indication of what happens to their fortunes from here. Twitter soared 73 per cent on its opening day yet now trades at $15.67, 40 per cent below its IPO price. Facebook’s listing was plagued by trading errors with the shares barely gaining on its first day before falling 31 per cent in the first year. The stock has since risen 260 per cent above the IPO price.

Snap raised $3.4 billion in Wednesday’s initial public offering when it sold 200 million shares for $17 each. 

The Venice, California-based company has a market value of about $28 billion despite posting a net loss of $515 million last year, according to the IPO prospectus. Revenue climbed almost seven-fold in 2016, to $404 million from $59 million.