MORGAN, Sam

Sam Morgan isn’t known for making many public statements, but his most recent offered work at one of his startups.

Morgan, who made his fortune when Trade Me was sold to Fairfax Media for $700m, has since become known as an investor in tech companies.

He was an early-stage investor in Xero, along with a number of other startups. One of those is Vend, a cloud point-of-sale software maker which has about 300 employees. Morgan is also on the board and made a point of promoting the company’s recent push to hire an additional 125 people, including a chief product officer. However, that rare tweet has since disappeared as Morgan has shut down his account.

The investor, who lives near Nelson, continues to be active in philanthropy through Jasmine Social Investments. Morgan’s venture focuses on backing “social entrepreneurs” or small projects aimed at alleviating poverty in the developing world.

2018: $550 million