This story is part of Forbes’ coverage of Singapore’s Richest 2020. See our full coverage here.
As the pandemic battered China’s economy early this year, Teo Swee Ann was grappling with a sharp decline in his company’s sales. Teo’s Shanghai-based Espressif Systems, which designs chipsets and software, had to slash prices. In the first half, net profits dropped 45% to 35 million yuan ($5 million), as revenues slipped 9% to 293 million yuan.
That decline wasn’t enough to keep Teo from vaulting onto the list after Espressif’s IPO last year. A Singaporean with a master’s in electrical engineering from the National University of Singapore, Teo made his fortune in China, and joins the list with a $990 million net worth. After jobs at U.S. chipmakers Transilica and Marvell Technology Group, and then China’s Montage Technology, Teo founded Espressif in 2008, and the company’s flagship ESP32 chips now power goods such as speakers, wearable devices and home appliances. In July last year, Espressif sold 25% of its shares in an IPO that valued the company at $716 million. The stock’s more than threefold rise since the IPO has pushed its market cap to $2.2 billion.
Teo is not slowing down despite the pandemic. “We have built the most comprehensive ecosystem for IoT developers,” he wrote shareholders in February, and the company plans this year to launch four chips with improved performance and lower power consumption.
