America's Richest Self-Made Women of 2024
These 11 entrepreneurs, executives and artists, including Taylor Swift and Kylie Jenner, have broken down barriers in business and entertainment. By Annika Grosser, Contributor
You don't have to spend a lifetime building a fortune. The newest members of Forbes' 2024 list of America's Richest Women are proof.
Of the 100 members on the list, 11 are under 40. While that number has remained the same over the past few years, some of its faces have changed as new women have joined its ranks and others have departed. The youngest person on the list for the seventh year in a row is reality TV star and cosmetics entrepreneur Kylie Jenner, who, at 26, has been busy launching her Khy clothing line and founding a vodka soda company, Sprinter Spirits, both of which launched late last year. . Jenner debuted on the ranks at the age of 20, making her the youngest self-made woman — which in itself has sparked plenty of heated debate. The only other twenty-something on the list is Lucy Guo, 29, who co-founded artificial intelligence company Scale AI in 2016 and left two years later. Guo went on to found and run Passes, an online platform for creatives who share everything from makeup tips to relationship advice.
The richest person under 40 is Rihanna, whose fortune comes largely from her stake in the Fenty Beauty cosmetics line, which she owns with French luxury goods group LVMH. Last summer, the pop star welcomed her second child, Riot Rose, after announcing her pregnancy during her Super Bowl halftime show. Right behind her is Taylor Swift, whose Eras tour catapulted her to billionaire status. Swift has grossed more than $1 billion in ticket sales in 2023 — the first artist to achieve that feat — and the tour is expected to bring in another $1 billion by the end of December.
Among the younger self-made women, there are also three earners. The richest among them is Shuo Wang, co-founder and chief revenue officer of HR software company Deel, who debuted on the list with an estimated fortune of $850 million. Wang, 35, left China for the United States at age 16 and sold scooters at flea markets while in high school. He later studied robotics at MIT and later co-founded two companies.
The most famous young woman on the list is Katy Perry, 39. She joins the ranks after a $225 million deal last fall in which the pop star sold her music rights to five of her six studio albums. Perry just wrapped up her seventh and final season as a judge on the television singing competition series American Idol, after announcing earlier this year that she would be leaving the show to work on new music. Three of last year's youngest members — Huda Kattan, Rachel Romer and Julia Cheek — fell below the threshold this year. The minimum to qualify has been raised to $300 million, up from $225 million last year.
Here are the newest members of the Forbes 2024 Self-Made Women list
Net worth as of May 3, 2024; age as of May 28, 2024
Kylie Jenner
Age: 26
Net worth: $710 million
Source of wealth: Cosmetics
Self-study score: 7
The youngest Kardashian launched her Khy clothing line last fall, then released Sprinter vodka soda and a perfume called Cosmic in March. The bulk of her wealth still comes from an estimated 44.1% stake in Kylie Cosmetics, plus money from selling 51% of the company to French beauty giant Coty in 2020 for $600 million.
Lucy Guo
Age: 29
Net worth: $500 million
Source of wealth: Artificial Intelligence
Self-study score: 8
Her company, Passes, a platform for creators that offers makeup tutorials, relationship advice and more, raised $40 million in February from investors including Emma Grede (No. 87). Most of her wealth is in her roughly 6% stake in artificial intelligence company Scale AI, which she founded with Alexandr Wang in 2016. (She left in 2018.) Scale AI was worth about $7 billion as of press time, according to Forbes. But it's raising new funding from private investors at a valuation of nearly $13 billion.
Whitney Wolfe Herd
Age: 34
Net worth: $400 million
Source of wealth: Dating apps
Self-report score: 8
Wolfe Herd stepped down as CEO of Bumble in January, nearly a decade after founding the dating app aimed at women; she remains executive chairman. Bumble shares have fallen nearly 90% since the company began trading in February 2021, when Wolfe Herd briefly became the country's youngest female billionaire. About $1.2 billion poorer today, she was replaced by former Slack CEO Lidiane Jones. Taylor Swift
Age: 34 years
Net worth: $1.3 billion
Source of wealth: Music
Self-study result: 8
Music's biggest star has dominated the concert world and is set to become a billionaire by 2023. His Eras tour set a record in December as the first to bring in more than $1 billion in ticket sales, according to Pollstar; expected to bring in more than $2 billion by the end of the year. In April, Swift released her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, the 31-track deluxe version of which broke the streaming record set by her 2022 album Midnights.
Shuo Wang
Age: 35 years
Net worth: $850 million
Source of wealth: Human resource software
Self-study result: 8
Wang is co-founder and chief revenue officer of HR software company Deel. Less than five years after its founding, Deel surpassed $500 million in annual revenue in March. After moving to the United States from China at the age of 16, Wang sold scooters at flea markets while in high school. She later studied robotics at MIT and co-founded air-purification company Aeris before Deel.
Rihanna
Age: 36
Net worth: $1.4 billion
Source of wealth: Music, cosmetics
Self-study score: 10
The Barbados-born pop star gave birth to her second child, Riot Rose, nearly six months after revealing her pregnancy on stage during the Super Bowl halftime show. Most of her wealth comes from her 50% stake in the cosmetics line Fenty Beauty, her joint venture with LVMH, which owns Sephora; Fenty launched a new mascara last year.
Christina Cacioppo Age: 36 Net worth: $385 million Source of wealth: Software Self-made score: 8 Automated security and compliance startup Vanta, of which she is CEO, surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue in January. Cacioppo co-founded Vanta in 2017 after working at Dropbox and venture capital firm Union Square Ventures. The Ohio native says she speaks seven languages and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 2008. Daniela Amodei Age: 36 Net worth: $830 million Source of wealth: Artificial intelligence Self-made score: 8 Amodei is the president of Unicorn of Antropic Artificial Intelligence. She co-founded the company in 2021 with her brother, Dario, who serves as CEO, and five other researchers; all of whom came from OpenAI and are now competitors with their former employer. French Anthropic, which builds large-scale AI systems and has partnerships with Amazon and Alphabet, raises $750 million in new funding at an $18 billion valuation. Neha Narkhede Age: 39 Net worth: $680 million Source of wealth: Software Self-made score: 8 Narkhede is the CEO of fraud detection startup Oscilar, which more than doubled its staff in its first year out of the closet to more than 60 employees. She and her husband self-funded the company, which they founded in 2021, to the tune of $20 million. Narkhede owns about $450 million in shares of data streaming software company Confluent, which she co-founded. Katy Perry Age: 39 Net worth: $350 million Source of wealth: Music Self-made score: 9 Perry sold the rights to her songs in a deal that was finalized in September 2023 and is said to be valued at $225 million. She has since announced her possible departure from the television singing competition American Idol after seven years as a judge and hinted that she was working on new music. Her wealth comes primarily from income from sales of her catalog and also from her tours. Iman Abuzeid Age: 39 Net worth: $350 million Source of wealth: Healthcare market Self-made score: 8 A physician by training, Abuzeid launched Incredible Health in 2017 to help hospitals find and hire much-needed nurses. The company, which uses machine learning to match candidates with permanent positions, has raised funding at a $1.65 billion valuation by 2022. In December 2023, Abuzeid announced that Incredible Health would integrate Generative AI into its career marketplace.
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