Immutable founders James and Robbie Ferguson make Australian rich list
Tech and mining entrepreneurs dominated with skyrocketing wealth, but others included a pub baron and food mogul with the top ten worth $554.9b combined.
A uni dropout is the youngest person to make an Australian rich list in its almost 40-year history with an estimated combined wealth of $1.01 billion alongside his brother.
Brothers James, 30, and Robbie Ferguson, 25, who were raised by their former Macquarie investment banker father and doctor mother, are one of 13 new entrants to the Australian Financial Review rich list.
The brothers’ love for video games, which they would obsessively play late into the night as they hid from their parents, is the reason behind their whopping fortune.
The duo set up their company Immutable in 2018 originally to create video games using blockchain technology but had difficulty expanding.
It saw them pivot, turning the company into Immutable X, which provides the infrastructure for other companies to grow their non-fungible token (NFT) ventures, with the tech now being used by giants such as Disney and Marvel to support their cryptocurrency businesses.
TikTok is also a client using the tech to allow people to share their own content on the platform.
Robbie Ferguson made dux at Sydney’s Knox Grammar but later failed to complete his computer science and law degrees as Immutable took off, with a recent $200 million fundraising round taking the company to a $3.5 billion valuation. This made it Australia’s third most valuable privately held tech company.
He believes the world of NFTs will open up some exciting new products.
“I think you’ll be buying NFT insurance contracts or term deposits or financial instruments pretty quickly,” he told the AFR.
“Goldman Sachs said it is looking at tokenising real assets.”
Other new entrants to the list include hotelier Sam Arnaout, 46, who has an estimated wealth of $1.89 billion with properties including Manly’s Hotel Steyne, Ivanhoe Hotel and The Bourbon in Potts Pott, as well mining prospector Tim Goyder whose fortune tops $848 million.
There was also Peter Freedman who sold $318 million worth of recording gear globally last year with his company Rode, fast-food entrepreneur Sam Prince with an estimated wealth of $1.1 billion and Arrotex Pharmaceuticals chairman Dennis Bastas who is worth $995 million.
There were a number of familiar faces that topped the rich list rankings.
Mining magnates Gina Rinehart and Andrew Forrest took out the top two spots. Ms Rinehart’s estimated wealth was $34 billion up from $31 billion the previous year, while Mr Forrest’s fortune was $30.7 billion jumping by $27.2 billion from 2021.
Tech juggernaut Atlassian saw its co-founders take out the third and four spots, with Mike Cannon-Brookes slightly ahead with a wealth of $27.8 billion while Scott Farquhar registered $26.4 billion.
Anthony Pratt, whose grandfather started packaging and recycling business Visy, ranked fifth with a fortune of $24.3 billion, while real estate developer and founder of Meriton Harry Triguboff’s wealth was estimated at $21.2 billion this year.
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Clive Palmer, whose tilt at parliament with his United Australia Party failed miserably, came in seventh with an estimated wealth of $19.5 billion.
Canva founders Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht took out the eight spot with their $13.8 billion fortune, while Ivan Glasenberg who holds the largest stake in commodity trading an and mining company Glencore was worth $12.2 billion.
Rounding out the top 10 was Frank Lowy who co-founded Westfield has an estimated worth of $9.2 billion.
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