Forbes ranks the top 100 richest Ukrainians

Forbes has published the top 100 richest Ukrainians for the first time since 2016. The total amount of the ranking participants’ fortune amounted to $31.4 billion. The ranking was published in the first printed edition of Forbes.

The top 100 richest Ukrainians list includes several newcomers from the IT industry, whose fortunes amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Who’s in top 100 richest Ukrainians from the IT industry

• Dmytro Zaporozhets, a founder of GitLab, came in at No. 30 of the ranking. His fortune was estimated at $560 million. In 2019, GitLab raised $268 million in Series E funding round. The company was evaluated at $2.7 billion and attracted $426 million in total.
• Vladyslav Yatsenko, a co-founder of Revolut, a financial service for travelers, which operates as an online bank, is at No. 27. According to Forbes, he owns $300 million. In February 2020, Revolut raised $500 million in new funding round and was evaluated at $6 billion.
• Oleg Roginsky was ranked 33rd with $270 million. He is the founder of the American sales startup People.ai. In 2019, it raised about $100 million in investments and was evaluated at $500 million.
• 35th, 36th, and 37th positions were taken by Alex Shevchenko, Max Lytvyn, and Dmytro Lider – the founders of the Grammarly, an online grammar checking service. According to Forbes, their fortune amounts to $250 million. In 2019, Grammarly raised $90 million at a valuation of $1 billion and became a unicorn.
• The ranking also included founders of IT company SoftServe, Taras Kytsmey (No. 68, $120 million), and Yaroslav Lyubinets (No. 98, $95 million).

Grammarly Case

Forbes estimated the Grammarly founders’ fortune based on the company’s valuation of $1 billion and the fact that each of the founders has 25% of the business.

In fact, Grammarly has never mentioned that its valuation is $1 billion. In all the pieces, the company reported the valuation of “over $1 billion.” The authoritative PitchBook service recently reported a real estimate of the Grammarly business of $2.3 billion. AIN.UA contacted Grammarly, and the company did not confirm or deny the valuation reported by PitchBook. Besides, the U.S. Forbes also writes about the evaluation of $2.3 billion, and there were no denials after the article was published.

Moreover, according to AIN.UA, the three founders have 76%, not 75% left. Thus, each of the founders of Grammarly has about $582.6 million. With this fortune, they could be at No. 13-14-15 in the list of the richest Ukrainians.

Update: after the publication of the piece, AIN.UA received a comment from Grammarly that the information in PitchBook is incorrect. Here is the full comment of the company:

Grammarly, as a private company, has the right not to disclose the company’s value, its owners, and the distribution of shares.
As for the estimate of the PitchBook service to which the publication refers, we do not publicly disclose the evaluation of our company, but we can say that the data on this resource is incorrect.
Also, we would like to note that the composition of the owners of our company is different from that of the founders. We emphasize that the estimates made by the editorial staff to assess the fortune of our founders are also incorrect.

Grammarly, as a private company, has the right not to disclose the company’s value, its owners, and the distribution of shares.

Regarding the evaluation reported by PitchBook, to which the site refers, we can say that we do not publicly disclose the evaluation of our company, but that figure is incorrect.

Also, we would like to note that the composition of the owners of our company is different from that of the founders. We emphasize that the estimates made by the editorial staff to assess the fortune of our founders are also incorrect.

AIN.UA trusts PitchBook as one of the most popular and authoritative services in the world for providing financial information, including ones about private companies. The American Forbes Magazine also trusts the service, which also used the PitchBook evaluation in its latest article about the company. The piece, published on April 22, is listed with an estimated value of $2.3 billion, and there is no rebuttal of the assessment in it.

Top 10 Richest Ukrainians

The first 10 positions in the overall top 100 richest Ukrainians are occupied by:

1. Rinat Akhmetov – $2.8 billion;
2. Viktor Pinchuk – $1.4 billion;
3. Petro Poroshenko – $1.4 billion;
4. Oleksandr Gerega and Galyna Gerega – $1.3 billion;
5. Gennadii Bogoliubov – $1.2 billion;
6. Yurii Kosiuk – $1.1 billion;
7. Kostyantin Zhevago – $1.1 billion;
8. Igor Kolomoiskyi – $1 billion;
9. Vadym Novinskyi – $810 million;
10. Oleksandr Yaroslavskyi – $725 million.

Who else is in the ranking

• Stepan Chernovetskiy, the Head of Chernovetskyi Investment Group, came in at No. 21 with $390 million. In April 2020, the firm led the Series A funding round of Zakaz.ua.
• Vladyslav Chechotkin and Iryna Chechotkina keep their spot as No. 22 with a $380 million fortune. Their main asset is Rozetka;
• No.34 – Vasyl Khmelnytskyi with $255 million and the main asset UFuture Investment Group;
• No. 62 – Viktor Polishchuk – $130 million. Main asset: Eldorado;
• No.95 – Volodumyr Popereshniuk, Viacheslav Klimov – $100 million each. Main asset: Nova Poshta.