Richard Branson Net Worth

What is Richard Branson's net worth?

net worth:	$4 billion
age:	74
Date of Birth:	July 18, 1950
gender:	male
high:	1.79 m (5 ft 10 in)
country of origin:	U.K.
Source of wealth:	Virgin founder
Last updated:	September 9, 2024

introduce

Richard Branson's net worth is estimated at $4 billion.

Richard Branson is a British business magnate and founder of the Virgin Group, which currently controls more than 400 companies.

Branson started out as a simple record store and built the Virgin Group into an absolute behemoth, making himself one of the richest people in the UK and one of the richest people in the world.

Richard Branson – Key Facts

In 1966, Branson founded his first business magazine, Student.
In addition to launching the magazine, he also started a mail-order record company.
In 1970, Branson founded his first major company, Virgin Records.
The Virgin Group was founded in 1970.
In 1992, Branson sold his record label to EMI.
In 1999, half of Virgin Atlantic was sold to Singapore Airlines for $960 million.
Virgin Galactic was founded in 2004.
Virgin Media was acquired by Liberty Group in 2013.
Richard Branson is one of the richest people in the UK.

early life

Branson was born on July 18, 1950 in Blackheath, London, England. He has two sisters. His mother, Eve Branson, was a ballet dancer and later became a flight attendant; his father, Edward James Branson, was a lawyer.

He attended Skeetcliffe School, a prep school in Surrey, and Cliffview House School in Sussex. He attended Stowe School, a private school in Buckinghamshire, until the age of 16.

Due to his dyslexia, Richard Branson had difficulty concentrating during his studies and his grades were poor. Therefore, he decided to drop out of school at the age of 16 to pursue his interest in entrepreneurship – and his parents fully supported him because they always believed in their son's ambitions.

Profession

Richard Branson's Career

In 1966, Richard Branson decided to drop out of school to start Student magazine. The magazine became so popular that Branson even interviewed several celebrities for it.

At the same time, he started a small mail-order record company. He began placing advertisements for popular records in magazines and soon found his market. His magazines drove sales of the records he offered at low prices, which made both businesses successful.

At that time he began trading under the Virgin name and the magazine was Virgin's first form of advertising.

Branson's first record store was in Oxford, London, and soon after the success of the store, Virgin Records was established. This was a big step for the young entrepreneur.

Branson bought a country estate and built his own recording studio, The Manor Studio, there. He began renting the estate to musicians, including one of his earliest singers, Mike Oldfield, whose first album, Tubular Bells (1973), was Virgin Records' first major hit.

Branson has never been afraid to make bolder choices when it comes to signing artists, which is how the Sex Pistols began recording on his label. Some of the most interesting and successful artists to have come under Virgin Records’ wing include The Rolling Stones, Steve Winwood, Culture Club, XTC, and Peter Gabriel.

But Brannon's label is more than just a home for acclaimed pop artists. Virgin Records has been praised for its focus on more avant-garde musicians like Faust and Can.

All this meant that in 1979, Branson's net worth was estimated at £5 million. Just one year later, Virgin Records went international, becoming one of the most influential record companies in the world.

After the success of Virgin Records, Branson began to venture into different industries. His most famous and successful business is Virgin Atlantic Airways, which he founded in 1984.

A year later, Branson founded Virgin Holidays. In 1992, due to the financial problems of the airline, he sold the record company to EMI for £500 million, which was a significant loss for him personally.

In 1996, he founded V2 Records with the intention of conquering the music world once again. Around the same time, the Virgin Group acquired the European airline Air Europe Belgium and renamed it Virgin Express.

In 1997, Branson entered the railway industry and founded Virgin Trains. Virgin Trains Group operated the InterCity Cross Country and InterCity West Coast franchises for the next 15 years.

2004 was another seminal year in Branson's career. That year, Branson announced an agreement with Virgin Galactic to allow his new space tourism company to use SpaceShipOne's technology to conduct suborbital space tourism flights. Planned ticket prices were $200,000.

Virgin Fuels is another company established under the Virgin Group with a mission to explore alternative fuels.

Branson's Virgin Health arm announced plans in 2008 to open a chain of medical clinics, offering both traditional and non-traditional medical services.

Two years earlier, in 2006, the Virgin Group sold Virgin Mobile to NTL: Telewest for £900 million. The new company existed under the name Virgin Media.

Richard Branson founded Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation in 2006 along with author Deepak Chopra, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, entrepreneur Sharad Devarajan and Gotham Chopra.

On February 9, 2007, Branson announced the creation of the Virgin Earth Challenge, a technology prize awarded to those who devise solutions to remove greenhouse gases from the Earth's atmosphere.

Over the years, the Virgin brand has continued to grow and expand into new businesses, including Virgin Airlines such as Virgin America and Virgin Australia, as well as Virgin Voyages, British bank Virgin Money, Virgin Hotels, Virgin Racing, Virgin Casino and Virgin United.

The most successful and well-known Virgin ventures are the airlines Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America, and the companies Virgin Galactic and Virgin Mobile.

Branson has been knighted for his services to the business world. Since 2000, he can rightly be called Sir Richard Branson.

As of 2024, Richard Branson's net worth is estimated to be $4 billion.

Personal life

Branson's first marriage was to Kristen Tomassi in 1972. The relationship did not last long and the couple divorced in 1979. He met his second wife, Joan Templeman, in 1976 and married her in 1989 on Necker Island.

Richard Branson has two children – daughter Holly (born 1981) and son Sam (born 1985).

In addition to his numerous business ventures, he is also well known for his achievements in the sports world. Richard Branson is an experienced kite surfer, having set world records in this sport. Together with Per Ringstrand, he was one of the first people to cross the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans in a hot air balloon.

How does Richard Branson spend his money?

In addition to his business empire, most of Branson's investments and spending revolve around real estate. His most important assets include private islands – Necker Island, Makepeace Island, Great Britain Island and Moskito Island in the British Virgin Islands.

Branson bought Necker Island in 1979 for just $270,000, even though it was valued at about $7.5 million. He did so to create a getaway for himself and the artists on his record label. He was lucky because the previous owner, in need of quick cash, agreed to buy it for much less than the island was actually worth.

There, Branson built his Necker Island residence, a luxurious villa that can accommodate 28 guests. It is estimated that the property is worth about $200 million today. Branson's Necker Island residence also has an interesting history, having been damaged by two tropical hurricanes – Hurricane Irene in 2011 and Hurricane Irma in 2017.

When Branson isn't using the villa, he rents it out for $65,000 a day.

Other properties owned by the entrepreneur include The Lodge in Verbier in the Swiss Alps and an estate on the Spanish island of Mallorca, which he plans to turn into Europe's finest eco-resort.

Career Highlights

Here are some highlights from Richard Branson's career:

Dropped out of school to found Student magazine (1966)
Founding of Virgin (1970)
Virgin Records founded (1973)
Virgin Books (1979)
Virgin Games (1983)
Virgin Atlantic (1984)
Virgin Mobile (1999)
Knighted by Prince Charles of Wales (1999)