- Some of the region’s most traditional names remain among the top 10 richest Latin Americans, but billionaires such as Carlos Slim and Jorge Paulo Lemann had losses during 2020 and dropped positions in the global ranking;
- There is also a newcomer on the list: the 39-year-old Colombian David Vélez. Nubank’s co-founder and CEO stars Forbes list for the first time, with a net worth of $5.2 billion.
Forbes released its 2021 world’s billionaires list. Looking at the Latin Americans in this select group, it is possible to see some changes compared to the previous list. Some of the region’s most traditional names remain among the top 10 richest Latin Americans, but billionaires such as Carlos Slim and Jorge Paulo Lemann had losses during 2020 and dropped positions in the global ranking.
On the other hand, entrepreneurs who took advantage of online life’s tide due to the COVID-19 became even richer, like the Brazilian Luiza Helena Trajano, chairwoman of the retailer Magazine Luiza, which has about 1,000 stores in Brazil and a booming e-commerce arm. In 2020, Trajano’s fortune was $1.7 billion. In 2021, she took the 529th position globally, with a net worth of $ 5.3 billion.
READ ALSO: The 10 richest Latin Americans in 2020
Marcos Galperin is the founder and CEO of the e-commerce giant in Latin America, Mercado Libre. In 2020, his fortune was estimated at $2 billion. This year, it more than doubled to $ 6.1 billion.
There is also a newcomer on the list: the 39-year-old Colombian David Vélez. Nubank’s co-founder and CEO features Forbes list for the first time, with a net worth of $5.2 billion.
Vélez was born in Medellin, Colombia, and moved to Costa Rica at the age of nine to escape drug cartels’ violence. In 2013 he founded Nubank in Brazil, the largest fintech in Latin America, valued at $25 billion.
Below is the list of the 10 richest in Latin America in 2021:
- Carlos Slim Helu & family – net worth of $62.8 billion
- German Larrea Mota Velasco & family – net worth of $25.9 billion
- Iris Fontbona & family – net worth of $23.3 billion
- Jorge Paulo Lemann & family – net worth of $16.9 billion
- Eduardo Saverin – net worth of $14.6 billion
- Ricardo Salinas Pliego & family – net worth of $12.9 billion
- Marcel Herrmann Telles – net worth of $11.5 billion
- Jorge Moll Filho & family – net worth of $11.3 billion
- Luis Carlos Sarmiento – net worth of $11 billion
- Alberto Bailleres Gonzalez & family – net worth of $9.2 billion
READ ALSO: Carlos Slim, Jorge Paulo Lemann and more: the Latin Americans among world’s 500 richest
Off the top 10 but among the 2,755 billionaires are the Brazilian Carlos “Beto” Sicupira, with a net worth of $8.7 billion; the Mexican Juan Francisco Beckmann Vidal & family, with a net worth of $7 billion; the Mexican María Asunción Aramburuzabala ($5.8 billion); and the Brazilians Alceu Elias Feldmann ($5.4 billion), Luis Frias, from PagSeguro Digital ($4.6 billion) and Andre Esteves, from BTG Pactual Bank ($4.5 billion).
