From the metaverse to megastars, Dua Lipa to Anthony Joshua, Harry Styles to Alex Lovén (who sells more football goals than anyone else in the UK), this year’s 40 under 40 list showcases British talent from music, sport, entertainment and business.
Our list is led again by the soon-to-be-married Duke of Westminster*, who inherited his title and a vast land and property portfolio aged 25. His family’s wealth is estimated at more than £10 billion.
Analysis of the 40 under 40 list reveals:
● The majority made millions on their own, but nine were born into money.
● 36 of the 40 entries have a combined total of £7.4 billion; the other four, who owe at least some of their wealth to inheritance, account for £13.3 billion.
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● The top nine also feature in the main Rich List, where the minimum figure for entry is £350 million; the minimum for the 40 under 40 list is £56 million.
Last year sportswear makers including Ben Francis of Gymshark, and Dan and Melanie Marsden — founders of Lounge Underwear, whose lingerie business has been powered by Instagram and thrived during the pandemic — dominated the Young Rich List.
AI firms are catching up. Turning text into audio spoken in more than 130 languages has boosted the fortunes of Steffen Tjerrild and his Danish compatriot Victor Riparbelli, who made their home in London and set up the AI-powered video creator Synthesia.
• Rich List 2024: discover the full list
Other tech entrepreneurs include Herman Narula, who has a valuation of £780 million. His is the highest self-made fortune in this year’s list. The author of Virtual Society is developing a platform where 40,000 users can share the same virtual space at once.
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The success of Dare, which handles trades worth billions of pounds a day, has catapulted its husband-and-wife founders, Ayman Rahman and Fateha Begum, to No 8 as well as onto the main Rich List. Rahman’s top tip? “Remember who helped get you here and thank them.”
Good advice however old you are.
* Fortunes include family wealth. All of our Young Rich List were aged under 40 on May 1, 2024
40 under 40: the full list
40. Charlie Morgan
£56 million
Morgan, 28, is one half of the double act behind the blingy Welsh drinks brand Au Vodka. Sales jumped by more than 20 per cent last year. Popular flavours include Gold Caramel and Pink Lemonade.
39. Emma Watson
£59 million
Watson, 34, earned about £50 million playing swotty Hermione in Harry Potter and £15 million from the remake of Beauty and the Beast. She has launched Renais, a gin distillery in Dorset.
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38. Gareth Bale
£70 million
Since retiring from football Bale, 34, has competed in celebrity golf tournaments alongside Novak Djokovic and Rory McIlroy. The Cardiff-born winger also has his own sports bar, Elevens.
37. Raheem Sterling
£72 million
The Jamaican-born striker, 29, earns about £350,000 a week at Chelsea and last year fronted Nike’s anti-racism ad campaign. He has lucrative tie-ups with New Balance, Puma, Gillette and Clarks.
36. Susie Ma
£73 million
Ma, 35, started out making face scrubs and in 2011 persuaded Lord Sugar to buy half her Tropic Skincare business on The Apprentice. She bought him out last year.
• A Life in the Day: Susie Ma on chocolate, The Apprentice and the art of delegation
35. Harry Kane
£75 million
The England captain moved from Tottenham to Bayern Munich last summer for a reported signing fee of more than £30 million. Kane, 30, earns £400,000 a week and has poured his earnings into a diverse range of businesses.
Read our full profile of Harry Kane
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34. Mike and George Heaton
£81 million
The Bolton-born brothers started the streetwear label Represent with just £150. George, 31, was studying graphic design at college when he had the idea of selling T-shirts displaying his coursework. He and his brother Mike, 33, alighted on their brand’s name by writing down 15 “random” words. They picked “representing” and a friend later suggested ditching the “ing”. Collaborations with Kanye West, Justin Bieber, Zayn Malik and Gigi Hadid have helped drive sales and profits of £9 million.
33. Reece Wabara
£83 million
A former Manchester City player, Wabara quit football at 26 to focus on Manière De Voir, the fashion label he had created. Last year Wabara, 32, opened his first store on Oxford Street in London after ten years of selling online.
31= Steffen Tjerrild
£85 million
Tjerrild, 33, set up Synthesia, an AI-powered video creator, with his fellow Dane Victor Riparbelli in 2017. Valued at £800 million, it allows users to turn text into audio spoken in more than 130 languages with the help of 160 avatars.
31= Victor Riparbelli
£85 million
Riparbelli, 32, co-founded the Shoreditch-based Synthesia, specialising in AI-generated video. It created a David Beckham film delivering an anti-malaria message in nine languages.
29= Daniel Radcliffe
£90 million
Since his Hogwarts days Radcliffe, 34, has gilded his wealth with movie roles and by investing in London and New York property. His stock market portfolio has lost some of its magic.
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29= Dua Lipa
£90 million
Last summer’s Barbie blockbuster gave the Anglo-Albanian star her acting debut — and a No 1 single with Dance the Night. She landed a bigger role in Argylle, the latest Matthew Vaughn caper, and a No 2 in the UK singles charts with Houdini. The 28-year-old picked up her seventh Brit award in March and released a third studio album this month. Wealth in her two largest companies has grown by £15 million. Read our full profile of Dua Lipa
28. Christian Owens
£91 million
Owens, 29, taught himself to code aged 13. Five years later he co-founded Paddle, a tech firm helping small businesses make and receive payments. He has a stake worth at least £91 million.
27. Sir Andy Murray
£100 million
Nearing the end of an illustrious career, Murray, 37, has won more than £50 million on the court and there have been commercial deals with Head, Standard Life, American Express and Halo. He spotted the potential for Castore, the sportswear brand set up by the Beahon brothers, and his stake is worth £35 million. The father of four also owns the upmarket Cromlix hotel in Stirlingshire, where a night in one of the turret suites will set you back £750.
25= Alex Kendall
£116 million
After his PhD at Cambridge, New Zealand-born Kendall, 31, founded Wayve, a start-up to develop AI-based software for driverless cars. The company aims to be the first to deploy autonomous vehicles in 100 cities.
25= Vishal Karia
£116 million
Sales at Karia’s perfume and cosmetics distributor, Affinity, have topped £100 million in seven years. Expelled from school and diagnosed with ADHD, Karia, 34, owns most of the Buckinghamshire-based £120 million wholesaler.
24. Alex and David Campbell*
£127 million
SureScreen Diagnostics won a £500 million NHS contract to supply lateral-flow tests during the pandemic. David, 34, and Alex, 39, run the Derby-based manufacturer with a third brother, Alastair.
23. Barney Hussey-Yeo
£128 million
Millions have signed up for Cleo, the witty app that helps users track spending and stick to budgets. The 34-year-old owns almost a third of the London business.
21= Lewis Morgan
£150 million
Morgan, 31, co-founded Gymshark with school friend Ben Francis before selling his stake and investing in property. He is chairman of Aybl, a rival sportswear brand started by another mate.
21= Eric Liu
£150 million
Chinese-born Liu, 28, set up HungryPanda, a food delivery service similar to Deliveroo specialising in Asian fare. The London-based business is now up and running in more than 80 cities across 10 countries, including Australia, France, Japan and the US. Liu, who read computer science at Nottingham University, has raised more than $200 million from investors. He owns at least 25 per cent of the £600 million business.
20. Dan and Melanie Marsden
£151 million
The power couple, 32 and 31, met at primary school. They founded the online retailer Lounge Underwear and last year opened their first bricks and mortar store in London.
19. Adele
£170 million
Ill health may have forced the singer to postpone her shows but it hasn’t dented her finances. The 36-year-old Londoner resides in Beverly Hills, and three years on from her divorce is dating the top US sports agent Rich Paul.
Read our full profile of Adele
17= Harry Styles
£175 million
Styles was pictured on his 30th birthday returning from an icy swim in one of Hampstead Heath’s ponds. If this doesn’t seem very rock’n’roll, the former One Direction singer has had a quieter time since his stellar 2022, when he topped album charts, starred in two films and played to packed stadiums around the world. The Redditch-born superstar is working on a fourth studio record. Wealth in his three largest companies has grown by almost £50 million since last year’s Rich List.
Read our full profile of Harry Styles
17= Anthony Joshua
£175 million
The former world heavyweight champion is punching his way into the property world, buying buildings in Mayfair, Bond Street and BP’s former HQ in Hertfordshire. Watford-born Joshua, 34, is still doing business in the ring. A knockout of Francis Ngannou in March set up the prospect of an encounter with Oleksandr Usyk or Tyson Fury. Sparta Promotions, which holds £129.2 million of Joshua’s wealth, shows he earned £28.3 million with his gloves last year and £8.9 million from commercial deals.
16. James Asquith
£182 million
Asquith was 24 when he held the Guinness world record for the youngest male to visit all 196 sovereign countries on the planet. These days the 35-year-old runs the Airbnb rival Holiday Swap and has recently founded Global Airlines.
14= Alex Lovén
£200 million
Lovén, 36, saved up £13,000 from shifts at a builder’s merchants during his teens to buy a shipment of goal nets. His Wrexham firm Net World Sports now sells more than 100,000 football goals a year.
14= Martin Kissinger
£200 million
The German-born LSE graduate, 34, moved to London to set up Lendable, which uses AI to identify low-risk people for loans with lower interest.
13. Rory McIlroy
£225 million
McIlroy, 35, picked up $1.62 million (£1.29 million) for winning last summer’s Scottish Open, and the Belfast-born golfer’s earnings on the fairways are thought to exceed £65 million. The bulk of McIlroy’s fortune stems from sponsorship deals with Nike, Omega, TaylorMade and others. He struggled with his form at last month’s US Masters, tying for 22nd place, but has prospered from property in Dubai, New York and Florida.
12. Timothy Goodwin and family*
£245 million
Goodwin, 34, chairs the family engineering business that makes parts for the defence and mining sectors. He received a £400,000 salary and dividends from the stock-market listed firm.
11. Tom and Phil Beahon
£334 million
The brothers have shaken up the sportswear world with their label, Castore. Tom, 34, played for Tranmere Rovers FC; the cricketer Phil, 31, represented Lancashire.
• Relative Values: Tom and Phil Beahon on how sibling rivalry fuels their business
10. Ed Sheeran
£340 million
Suffolk’s shaggy-haired songsmith paid himself £62 million for the first half of his Mathematics world tour. Not a bad sum for a former busker who wrote the lyric “I think that money is the root of all evil and fame is hell”.
9. Sir Lewis Hamilton
£350 million
The Formula 1 ace has lowered the chequered flag on Mercedes. He has been earning more than £40 million a year from his driving, plus almost £10 million from tie-ups with Bose, Electronic Arts, Monster Energy, Tommy Hilfiger and Puma. Leaks suggest his new contract with Ferrari could be worth as much as $446 million (£358 million). Born in Stevenage, Hamilton, 39, has spent 17 years living in either Switzerland or Monaco and thus avoiding UK tax on his overseas earnings.
8. Ayman Rahman and Fateha Begum
£404 million
After throwing himself into global energy markets, Rahman, 33, teamed up with his 36-year-old wife, Fateha Begum, to launch Dare International. Their firm employs 200 staff and handles trades worth billions of pounds a day. “I grew up as a Muslim guy in the wake of 9/11,” he has said. “Going to school after 2001 you sense you are not part of the real community. I’d like to show I can contribute and be a part of this great country.”
7. Oliver and Alexander Kent-Braham
£455 million
Initially running their business from a gym, the 32-year-old British twins created the giant insurer Marshmallow, which uses AI to assess safe drivers and lower their premiums.
6. Thomas Hartland-Mackie*
£684 million
US-based Hartland-Mackie, 36, runs his family’s electrical products business, City Electric Supply. It has at least 1,000 stores and turned over more than £1 billion last year.
5. Ben Francis
£725 million
Gymshark, the “athleisure” retailer set up by Francis, 31, is looking less pumped these days: profits have halved. Awarded an MBE by Prince William last May, he is renovating a Cotswolds farm.
Read our full profile of Ben Francis
4. Fawn and India Rose James*
£750 million
The James sisters inherited the £1 billion property empire built up by their grandfather Paul Raymond. The strip club tycoon bought up swathes of Soho, including Ronnie Scott’s jazz club and the landmark billboards in Leicester Square. Fawn, 38, right, takes a hands-on role in running the estate. India Rose, 32, describes herself as a “curator, collector, artist and mum”, and has a daughter with the Kooks guitarist Hugh Harris. The sisters also have real estate in Surrey and Dubai.
3. Herman Narula
£780 million
Described by Tatler magazine as “the toff in tech”, Narula set up Improbable Worlds in 2012 after studying at Cambridge. The London-based firm is developing a platform enabling 40,000 people to play in the same virtual space at once. An investment round in late 2022 valued his company at $3.4 billion (£2.7 billion) and Delhi-born Narula owns at least 28.9 per cent of the shares. His book Virtual Society is billed as a “definitive guide to the metaverse”.
2. Lady Charlotte Wellesley*
£2.2 billion
A daughter of the Duke of Wellington, Oxford-educated Lady Charlotte, 33, owes her real fortune to her marriage to the Colombian-American brewing heir and investor Alejandro Santo Domingo.
1. Duke of Westminster*
£10.127 billion
Touted for years as Britain’s most eligible bachelor, “Hughie” Grosvenor, 33, will marry Olivia Henson, 31, this summer. The duke inherited his title, and a vast global property empire, at the age of 25. Best known for their 300 acres of Mayfair and Belgravia, his family owns sites across 12 countries. Henson has entrepreneurial ambitions, setting up a honey business on the Eaton estate, the Grosvenors’ 11,000-acre expanse of Cheshire. Grosvenor’s friend the Prince of Wales is to be a guest of honour at next month’s wedding. Read our full profile of the Duke of Westminster
Rich List 2024
Explore the definitive guide to the wealth of the UK’s richest people
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