CENTI-MILLIONAIRES IN THE SPOTLIGHT

The fortunes of a new wave of super wealthy ‘centi-millionaires’ are outnumbering those of their billionaire counterparts by 10 to 1, with investable assets worth US$100 million or more. A new report revealed there are 25,490 centi-millionaires including tech titans, financiers and CEOs – a number which has more than doubled over the past 20 years.

According to ‘The Centi-Millionaire Report’ by advisory firm Henley & Partners, the rise of this phenomenon has been “dramatically accelerated” by advancements in technology and the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

The findings shine a light on the lives of the “super-wealthy” according to Henley & Partners CEO Juerg Steffen. “The centi-millionaire is someone so affluent that they don’t need to think about how much they spend. In fact, the level of wealth they have achieved means they are unlikely to ever worry about money again,” he said.

“Not long ago, in the late 1990s, US$30 million was considered the fortune needed to meet this definition. However, asset prices have risen significantly since then, making US$100 million the new benchmark.”

In early 2023, Mozilla will launch a “first-of-its-kind” impact venture, which will see it invest in startups that will “push the internet – and the tech industry – in a better direction”, Mozilla Foundation Executive Director Mark Surman has revealed.

“Many people complain about today’s tech industry. Some say the internet has lost its soul. And some even say it’s impossible to make it better,” Surman wrote on the company blog. “My response: we won’t know unless we try, together.”

The Canadian open internet activist is a firm believer in the important role of putting people before profits in building successful companies, and gives Mozilla as an example of this along with ProtonMail, Hugging Face and Kickstarter, among others.

“All are creating products and technology that respect users – and that are making the internet a healthier place,” he wrote.

“I believe that, if we have a lot more founders creating companies like these, we have a real chance to push the tech industry – and the internet – in a better direction.”

But he stressed that, with the system “stacked” against these types of founders, it can be incredibly hard – an issue which Mozilla hopes to remedy with its new program.

The US$35 million venture capital fund will be led by Managing Partner Mohamed Nanabhay and will target early-stage startups with products or technologies that are relevant to any of the Mozilla Manifesto values – privacy, inclusion, transparency, accessibility and human dignity.

The fund will look for companies and founders who are aligned with these values – and then, like other investors, “will look at their team, their product and their business”, Surman explained. “And, where all these things add up, we’ll invest.”

Investing platform Public will make its app available to a number of international markets in the first quarter of 2023. Through the phased roll-out, investors worldwide will be able to convert their local currency into US dollars and then invest in their choice of thousands of assets.

It will also give them access to Public’s community of investors and analysts, while daily live shows, reports and unique business metrics will provide them with contextual information about their portfolios. Extended market trading also offers additional flexibility outside normal United States market hours.

“At Public, our mission is to make the public markets work for all people,” said Leif Abraham, Co-CEO of Public.

“Over the past three years, we’ve been hard at work toward that mission, creating a platform where investors have access to a diverse mix of assets, from equities to crypto to alternatives – and by providing context, data, and tools so our members can make informed investment decisions.”

The platform currently has more than three million members in the United States and distributed teams across eight countries.

Women are going into retirement with only 74 percent of the wealth accumulated by men, a new report has revealed.

The ‘2022 Global Gender Wealth Equity’ report conducted by global advisory firm WTW revealed that the disparity increased with seniority. Women who held senior expert and leadership roles reportedly accumulated less than two-thirds (62%) of the wealth of their male counterparts. That number rose slightly to 69 percent for mid-level professional and technical roles, and 89 percent for frontline operational roles.

WTW Senior Director, Integrated & Global Solutions Manjit Basi described the study’s findings as “startling”. “It shows that there is a gender wealth gap consistently across the 39 countries that we studied,” she said.

Six out of the 12 APAC markets included in the study had a lower wealth gap than the global average. These included China (78%), Japan (82%), Philippines (79%) and Singapore (79%).

Where can you find the world’s centi-millionaires? These are the top 10 countries where the super wealthy live.