A year later, he was charging $5,000 a site, and by age 18, he'd brought on 25 employees, and was raking in $50,000 per month.Įk launched Spotify in 2008 for users in Europe, and brought the service to the U.S., with funding from streaming pioneers like Napster’s Sean Parker and μTorrent’s Ludvig Strigeus, in 2011. "Regardless," she says, "my guess is he stands to make a lot of money."īorn in Stockholm, Sweden, the tech entrepreneur started his first business at just 13 years old, building websites for $100 to $200, he told. Theresa Welbourne, PhD, a professor at the University of Alabama, and lead researcher of a 2017 study on the fate of private companies that go public, says most CEOs sell at least some of their shares at the IPO, and Elk may follow suit. “As a public company, analysts predict that Spotify’s lead will only grow stronger and will put pressure on Apple and Amazon to dig into their deep war chests,” Fast Company writes.Įk is notoriously press shy - little is known about the CEO outside of his affinity for business casual attire and, judging by his public Spotify playlists, bubblegum pop - so it's no surprise that he declined Money’s request for an interview.Īnalysts from the advisory firm GP Bullhound, which owns shares in Spotify, predict its valuation could reach $55 billion by 2020, which would rocket Ek's fortune to $5.5 billion in just a few years. And Spotify's competitive edge will only get stronger. In 2017, based on a reported 10% ownership in the company, Ek's net worth hovered around $800 million, according to Billboard. Private trades have bumped Spotify’s valuation up to as much as $20 billion – if the IPO goes forward, Ek’s stake will be worth $1.6 billion or more, according to B usiness Insider. Nearly a decade after the 34-year-old launched the hit streaming service, rumored to go public within the next few months, his future stands to be a valuable one. Depending on who you talk to, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek is either the guy who saved the music industry, or the one who killed it.
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