Oliver Samwer Net Worth in 2023 Career & Relationship
| Estimated value: | €1.1 billion |
|---|---|
| Age: | 49 |
| Born: | 08/09/1972 |
| Country of origin: | Germany |
| Source of Wealth: | entrepreneur |
| Last updated: | 2021 |
Short introduction
Oliver Samwer and his brothers Alexander and Marc founded the Berlin technology incubator Rocket Internet in 2007 and went public in October 2014. Often characterized as ruthless and combative, Oliver is the middle brother and CEO. Collectively, the Samwers own around 37% of Rocket, which was valued at more than $8 billion at the time of its IPO. Inspired by the dot-com boom, they founded the German auction house Alando in 1999 and sold it to eBay for $43 million a few months later. This was followed by the founding of the mobile operator Jamba!, which was sold to Verisign in 2004 for $273 million.
early life
Oliver graduated from the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Cologne. Like her father, her mother Sabine Samwer is a lawyer by profession in Cologne. Great-uncle Adolf Franz Samwer is a member of the Bundestag and chairman of the board of the German health insurance company in Cologne. Great-grandfather Karl August Friedrich Samwer was an honorary citizen of Gotha and managed the Gotha life insurance bank from 1903 to 1930. The great-great-grandfather Karl Friedrich Samwer was a professor of constitutional law in Kiel at the State University. All three brothers started their own families and have several children.
Oliver Samwer is one of the three founders of Rocket Internet along with his brothers Marc Samwer and Alexander Samwer. He was born in 1972 and grew up with his brothers in Cologne. His father was a reputable lawyer. He founded his first start-up (Ego International Trading Company) in Bolivia in 1996, the company manufactured shoes. In 1999, he and his three brothers created Alando, a copycat of the American company Ebay, which bought it for $43 million just one hundred days after Alando was founded. In 2000, with his three brothers, he created Jamba, a wireless carrier that was purchased by Verisign in 2004 for $273 million.
In 2007, the three brothers created Rocket Internet, which is involved in a large number of Internet start-ups and has developed internationally, including eDarling, Glossybox, HelloFresh, Helpling, Home24, SpaceWays, Westwing and Wimdu. Rocket Internet has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since October 2, 2014. In 2013, Oliver, Marc and Alexander announced the creation of a new fund to manage their personal wealth: Global Founders Capital.
Through this fund, Oliver Samwer in particular decided to invest in the French start-up WeMoms, the first social network for mothers, together with Xavier Niel, Jean-David Blanc and Thibaud Elzière.
Career
Brothers Oliver, Mark and Alexander Samwer share the 1999 position with a Net Worth of USD 1.1 billion in the Forbes ranking of the richest people in 2018. They founded a holding company in Berlin in 2007. Rocket Internet, which was launched in 2014, helped set up Zalando’s online mail order business, among other things. Middle brother Oliver Samwer is CEO of Rocket Internet. According to Forbes, brothers and sisters own around 37 percent of the company.
The founding investors of the Zalando online shop and the Internet start-up incubator Rocket are increasingly investing in real estate, preferably in Berlin. According to a study, the brothers Mark, Oliver and Alexander Samver own real estate in the center of the federal capital worth at least 150 million euros and manage it via a complex corporate network. In addition, according to the land register, there are real estate, houses and commercial areas in almost every district of Berlin.
In addition to the Wilhelm-style apartment buildings in Prenzlauer Berg and the commercial areas in Reinickendorf and Neukeln, there are also impressive buildings. The portfolio includes, for example, the Admiralspalast, a charming entertainment venue from the early 20th century, the former Bayer corporate headquarters on Kurfürstendamm and the Ullsteinhaus. The Samwer brothers will change the face of Berlin with their business model,” says the Bremen economist Rudolf Hickel.
Career highlights
In March 2013, it was announced that the Samwer brothers were launching a €150 million fund called Global Founders Capital (GFC). The fund aims to support young start-ups around the world. The Net Worth of the three Samwer brothers was listed in the Forbes list in 2018 at around one billion euros each. This put the Samwer brothers in 1999 place on the Forbes list of the richest people in the world.
The Samwer brothers participate in various social projects in different ways, especially in the educational field. Alexander Samwer strives for more environmental protection through his entrepreneurial activities and his commitment as one of the founders of the Leaders in Climate Protection initiative.
The brothers Samwer and Rocket Internet are criticized for their entrepreneurial actions. Many attacks aim to profitably simulate business models and products from other companies. For example, Alando was a replica of eBay’s US auction platform, and MyCityDeal was a copy of Groupon. According to some critics, the rocket internet sometimes exerted excessive pressure, similar to that of investment banks and management consultancies. Other allegations include a sometimes high-profile employee recruitment strategy, an authoritarian, high-pressure management style, and sometimes aggressive business behavior.
| Estimated value: | €1.1 billion |
|---|