Sir Richard Branson is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and commercial astronaut with an estimated net worth of $4.1 billion as of 2022 according to Forbes.
He is the brain behind the Virgin brand, which started more than five decades ago in 1972 with Virgin Records. The business tycoon is the founder and chairperson of the Virgin Group which has operations in more than 35 countries and has 60,000 plus employees on its payroll.
Virgin group has more than 40-plus companies operating in different industries like airlines, wireless communications, radio stations, hotels, health clubs, financial services businesses, renewable technologies, and a Formula One team.
We will cover everything you need to know about the business magnate in our article today.
Key Highlights
- Richard Branson has accumulated wealth through a conglomerate of businesses like Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Galactic.
- He came from a humble background, his father was a barrister, and his mother was a flight attendant. Branson started with a mail-order record business more than five decades back.
- Branson founded his first magazine at the age of 16.
- He resides in a luxe British Virgin Islands retreat, Necker Island.
- In 2016, Alaska Air acquired his company Virgin America airline which he could not stop as he could not get enough votes to oppose it.
- He was the first person who flew into space in a rocket plane on July 11, 2021. His own company Virgin Galactic made that plane.
There are no words to describe the feeling. This is space travel. This is a dream turned reality https://t.co/Wyzj0nOBgX @VirginGalactic #Unity22 pic.twitter.com/moDvnFfXri
— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) July 12, 2021
Early Life
Richard Branson was born in the year 1950 in Blackheath, London. He was not that good at his studies because of dyslexia. His school headmaster predicted on his last day of school saying he would either become a millionaire or land up in jail.
Business Journey
Branson’s ambition was to become an entrepreneur since his childhood days. At the age of 16, Branson launched a magazine called “Student”.
His small record business gained immense success and was profitable as the operating costs were very less. He named his business “Virgin”, as people associated with him had virtually no experience in life or business.
Branson’s Virgin brand experienced exponential growth in the 1980s, as he launched Virgin Atlantic airline and expanded his Virgin Records music label.
Howdy Austin! 🇺🇸
Yesterday, we touched down in Texas with @richardbranson to mark the launch of our newest route. This fabulously quirky city is our first new US destination since 2017. pic.twitter.com/wDuQNckOZC
— virginatlantic (@VirginAtlantic) June 9, 2022
A few years later, Branson founded the Virgin Rail Group and launched three franchises that operated for more than two decades from 1997 to 2019.
He founded the spaceflight company Virgin Galactic in 2004 designed exclusively for space tourism.
Branson was knighted at Buckingham Palace for “services to entrepreneurship” in 2000 not only for his contribution in the field of business but also for his humanitarian work. He was featured in the Time magazine list of 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2007.
Social Media
Branson is active on social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram where he has 12.7 million and 4.7 million followers respectively at the time of writing this article.
I’m still filled with inspiration when I look through the pages of Virgin By Design. The book uncovers the story behind @Virgin – and how we grew from a cheeky start-up to the brand it is today: https://t.co/wNNenjJ4pU pic.twitter.com/laIZDLFE3s
— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) June 10, 2022
Car and Aircraft collection
Richard Branson has a unique collection of cars, a few aircraft, and a submarine. Here is a partial list of his collection.
- Humber Super Snipe
- Aquada
- Fisker Karma
- Range Rover Astronaut Edition
- 1968 British Morris Mini-Minor
- Saab 9-5 BioPower
- Richard Branson Yacht
- Richard Branson Private Jet Falcon 900EX
- Richard Branson Jet
- Necker Nymph – Sub Marine
Bookmark this space and stay in touch for more net worth-related articles!
