2018 Financial Review Young Rich list revealed

THIS is the richest young woman in the country. And in just a few years, she has managed to quietly built an empire by making us sweat.

FITNESS queen Kayla Itsines has quickly become a household name — but until recently, few realised just how insanely wealthy she had become.

Ms Itsines and her fiance Tobi Pearce, 26, have just taken out fifth and sixth place in the 2018 Financial Review Young Rich list, thanks to their staggering combined wealth of $486 million.

Ms Itsines, 27, is now officially Australia’s richest young woman, and the couple are the wealthiest self-made 20-somethings in the country.

They owe the bulk of their fortune to the success of their fitness app Sweat, with subscribers forking out $19.95 each month in exchange for fitness and meal plans, shopping lists and exercise advice.

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But Australian Financial Review Magazine editor Matthew Drummond said Ms Itsines’ crazy wealth had come as a surprise to many, explaining it had only been revealed once the publication’s first female Rich List editor, Julie-Anne Sprague, started digging around.

“ … Julie-Anne Sprague set out to uncover why so few women were on the first list she has edited — the Young Rich List,” Mr Drummond explained.

“As part of this, she took a closer look at those women who are turning the tables, discovering that Sweat, the fitness app that Kayla Itsines created with her fiance Tobi Pearce, is spinning off a lot more money than anyone outside the business realised.

“Sprague’s scoop led us to feature Kayla Itsines on the cover of our November Australian Financial Review Magazine and was a superb way for Julie-Anne to kick off her new gig as the editor of the Financial Review’s various Rich Lists.”

But the overall top spot went to Atlassian co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, who have done their best to keep living like regular 30-somethings over the years — despite a whopping, combined net worth of $14.2 billion.

The pair, both aged 38, have just taken out the top two spots in the Financial Review Young Rich List for a record-breaking seventh year.

In the process, they have smashed the previous Young Rich List wealth-record, which they held themselves, of $6.08 billion.

The huge surge in their net worth — which is more than 14 times the combined wealth of the next two names on the list — is due to the share price rally of their US-listed software group.

Last year, Mr Farquhar shelled out $71 million for Double Bay mansion Elaine, setting a record for Australia’s priciest property sale.

Last month, Mr Cannon Brookes topped that record after reportedly paying $100 million for the historic Fairwater mansion, located right next door to Elaine.

But the duo are also famously low-key, with Mr Farquhar telling The Daily Telegraph recently that the business partners’ move to Double Day wouldn’t see them give up public transport any time soon.

“I’m sure we’ll come in (to work) the way we always come in — I catch the bus and the train into work,” Mr Farquhar revealed.

Billionaire besties Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes are now neighbours as well. Picture: Supplied

And when their software company went public back in December 2015, making the long-time friends billionaires in the process, they opted to celebrate not with champagne and caviar — but with a humble slice of pizza.

“We were there sitting in the back of this dodgy pizza place, eating pizza with oil and cheese dripping on to a paper plate,” Mr Farquhar told The Australian earlier this year.

“Here we were, on paper, we were ­billionaires and we were saying to each other, ‘Hey, which slice of pizza do you want?’ This was how we celebrated going public.”

Meanwhile, Melbourne property developer Tim Gurner — the man who made headlines last year after saying young Aussies would struggle to buy a home when they were “spending $40 a day on smashed avocados and coffees and not working” — has taken out the third spot on the 2018 rich list, with wealth of $631 million.

Ori Allon, who built his $539 million wealth in technology and property, scored fourth place, while equal fifth and sixth went to fitness entrepreneur Kayla Itsines and her fiance Tobi Pearce.

Fitness entrepreneur Kayla Itsines and her fiance Tobi Pearce took out the fifth and sixth places. Picture: Financial Review

Seventh place goes to Owen Kerr, with $460 million to his name thanks to his stake in foreign exchange Brokerage Company Pepperstone.

Husband-and-wife duo Collis and Cyan Ta’eed, who founded online graphic marketplace Envato, are jointly worth $428 million, earning them the eighth and ninth places, while farming and finance capital investor Peter Greensill sits in 10th place with $412 million in the bank.

The Young Rich List, now in its 15th year, tracks the wealth of the richest self-made Aussies aged under 40.

The 100 rich-listers featured this year have a staggering combined wealth of $23.5 billion — a huge increase on $13.2 billion last year.

In 2018, 21 debutantes have made it on the list, including former Australian cricket captain Steve Smith, F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo, Bundaberg farmer Peter Greensill and fund managers Mike Messara, Doug Tynan, Adam Harvey and Rishi Khilnani.

The youngest newbie is 22 year-old computer programmer Nick D’Aloisio, who is ranked 91st with wealth of $29 million.

The average age of the Young Rich-Lister is 35, and there are 10 women included this year, up from nine last year.

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