Germany’s youngest self-made billionaires – and yes, “young” is relative here. Who they are, what they do.
Young billionaires in Germany are almost exclusively heirs. Those who reach the billion dollar mark through their own entrepreneurial achievements usually do so much later – in this context, “young” does not mean their early 20s, but rather around 50. Who are these people who made it without inheritance? Here we introduce you to the youngest self-made billionaires in Germany, which we identified using the Forbes list.
5. Oliver Samwer (53)
Oliver Samwer is co-founder and CEO of Rocket Internet, one of the best-known German tech incubators, which he founded in 2007 together with his brothers Alexander and Marc.
Rocket Internet supports and finances internet and technology startups worldwide and has spawned successful companies such as Zalando and HelloFresh. Samwer is the middle of the three brothers and runs the company operationally, while Rocket Internet went public in 2014 and was privatized again in 2020.
Even before Rocket, he and his brothers gained experience in the Internet business: in 1999 they founded the online auction platform Alando, which they sold to eBay in the same year for 43 million US dollars, and in 2004 they sold the mobile phone content provider Jamba! to Verisign for $273 million. Samwer’s assets are around 1.2 billion US dollars.
4. Clemens Fischer (50)
Clemens Fischer is a founder and entrepreneur in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. After studying medicine and earning an MBA, he built a number of successful healthcare and pharmaceutical companies through his company Futrue Group, including the biotech startup Vertanical, which is working on a novel cannabis-based painkiller to replace opioids.
Fischer invested large parts of his own capital in the research and development of his companies. According to Forbes, he built his fortune entirely on his own, which amounts to around $1 billion is appreciated.
3. Alexander Samwer (51)
Alexander Samwer is co-founder of Rocket Internet and is also one of the Samwer brothers. Alexander is the youngest of the brothers and does not take part in the day-to-day management, which is mainly carried out by Oliver. Together, the brothers hold around 50 percent of Rocket Internet. Loud Forbes Alexander Samwer’s assets amount to around $1.1 billion.
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2. Christian Angermayer (47)
Christian Angermayer is a serial founder, investor and founder of Apeiron Investment Group, through which he invests in life sciences, fintech, AI, psychedelics and cryptocurrencies.
He achieved his first major financial success with the biotech company Ribopharma, which he founded together with his college professors and merged with Alnylam in 2003. Through Apeiron he holds investments in listed and private companies in the USA, Germany, Canada and Australia.
His investments include the biopharmaceutical company Atai Life Sciences and the blockchain holding Cryptology, in which he holds a stake together with co-investor Mike Novogratz. Angermayer also has an extensive art collection that includes historical artifacts related to psychedelics. According to Forbes, his net worth is estimated at approx $1.2 billion appreciated.
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1. Alexander Rinke (36), Martin Klenk (38) and Bastian Nominacher (41)
Alexander Rinke, Martin Klenk and Bastian Nominacher are the co-founders and managing directors of Celonis, one of the most successful German enterprise software startups, which develops software for analyzing and optimizing business processes (“process mining”) and is now a global leader.
Nominacher, Rinke and Klenk founded the company in 2011 after graduating from the Technical University of Munich. Nominacher is co-CEO, Klenk is CTO and technical head, while Rinke is co-CEO and holds a significant stake in the company. All three built their fortune entirely on their own and are listed by Forbes as self-made billionaires: Nominacher and Klenk with around $1.2 billionRinke with about $1.1 billion.