A 26-year-old businessman who launched an app during the coronavirus pandemic has become Britain's youngest self-made billionaire.
Johnny Boufarhat set up video conferencing platform Hopin last March as the UK entered the first national lockdown.
The Zoom-style software was quickly picked up by businesses needing to facilitate remote work, including American Express and HP, reports the Mirror.
A year on, the Manchester University graduate is now worth £1.5billion – placing him in 113th place on the Sunday Times Rich List.
Mr Boufarhat had initially come up with the idea in 2018 after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that left him bedridden.
Living at his girlfriend's flat in London, he started coding Hopin while also working for a construction company.
Two years later, the business had grown to a team of eight developers and Mr Boufarhat was able to secure funding from angel investors to get the project off the ground.
The group launched the app in March 2020, after which "things went crazy", he said.
The user base soared to five million during the Covid-19 pandemic, raking in sales of £54million in the year to January 2021.
Hopin now has 500 staff across the UK and US and is valued at £4.1bn.
Mr Boufarhat told the Sunday Times that he once worked seven days a week to make the project successful but now allows himself a half-day off on Saturdays.
He said: “I'm very, very work-focused. I just want to be as impactful as I can, in a positive way for the world [...] I'm boring - I don't drink, I don't do anything like that.
“I make sure all my food is organic. That's the biggest change I've made.'
Topping this year's Sunday Times Rich List is media mogul Sir Leonard Blavatnik, who is worth £23bn.
