Evan Spiegel, the French-American co-founder of Snap Inc., and is also a Hollywood A-lister through his marriage to Miranda Kerr. His personal fortune began unraveling a few years ago, causing a significant drop in his wealth.

As of 2024, Evan Spiegel’s net worth is estimated at $2.7 billion.

Spiegel was born and raised in the Pacific Palisades, a glitzy Los Angeles enclave, to a family with a considerable fortune. However, he made his personal wealth independently, founding the world-renowned messaging app Snapchat, since renamed Snap Inc.

Let’s see how he built his fortune, lost a large chunk of it, and where his net worth stands today.

How Much is Evan Spiegel Worth in 2024?

  • Total Net Worth: Estimated at $2.7 billion as of 2024.
  • Snap Inc. Stake: Owns 13% of Snap Inc., worth $2.39 billion.
  • Annual Salary: Reduced to $1 since the company went public.
  • Luxury Assets: Includes a $15.3 million real estate portfolio and a $75 million private jet.
  • Superyacht: Owns a $200 million superyacht.

6 Fun Facts about Evan Spiegel

  1. Evan Spiegel dropped out of Stanford just a few credits short of graduation.
  2. He was the youngest billionaire in the world in 2015.
  3. Spiegel is married to Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr.
  4. He bought a house in Brentwood that previously belonged to Harrison Ford.
  5. Snapchat started as a project in Spiegel’s dad’s house.
  6. Spiegel’s security costs once totaled $890,399 in a single year.

Latest News & Updates

Evan Spiegel, co-founder and CEO of Snap Inc., continues navigating personal and business challenges in 2024.

One of the key developments has been his recent efforts to sell luxury properties in Los Angeles, where the introduction of the city’s mansion tax has made it difficult for high-end homeowners to sell their properties at desired prices. Spiegel recently sold his Brentwood mansion for nearly $4 million less than his asking price​.

Spiegel’s leadership at Snap Inc. remains in the spotlight.

He recently testified before Congress, addressing concerns about online safety and the role of social media in exposing young users to harmful content. During this testimony, Spiegel emphasized Snap’s commitment to child safety, highlighting its proactive efforts to collaborate with law enforcement and implement new safety features on the platform.

Snap Inc. has faced significant fluctuations in its stock value over the years, but Spiegel remains steadfast in his leadership and continues to hold a 13% stake in the company, contributing significantly to his current net worth, which is estimated at $2.7 billion

Evan Spiegel’s Net Worth: Full Breakdown

In the world of technology, share prices tend to swing a lot – and often. Since the founding of Snap, Spiegel’s net worth has fluctuated tremendously.

In the last few years, Spiegel’s net worth plunged by billions.

He was once the world’s youngest billionaire, beating Dustin Moskovitz to the title in 2015, but today he’s left with with an estimated fortune of $2.7 billion.

At one point, he was worth over $10 billion, so even though Snapchat stock has rebounded (albeit slightly) in the last few years, he is still worth a lot less than before.

In addition to his stake in the business he founded, Spiegel has spent millions on assets like real estate, cars, and a private jet, which also contributes to his estimated net worth.

After a thorough research of his life, spending, and earnings, we came up with a detailed breakdown of Spiegel’s net worth, which you can see below:

Asset or Income Source Contribution to Net Worth
Snap Inc. stake 13%, $2.39 billion
Snap Inc. salary, 2016 $1.5+ million
Snap Inc. salary, 2017 onwards $1
Car collection $800,000
Superyacht $200 million
Private jet $75 million
Real estate $15.3 million
Total Net Worth $2.7 billion

Evan Spiegel Net Worth: Early Life and Education

Evan Thomas Spiegel was born in 1990 in Los Angeles, California, as the oldest of three children in his family. His parents are both lawyers, John Spiegel and Melissa Ann Thomas.

Young Evan Spiegel studied in exclusive schools during his childhood and teenage years, starting with the Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica.

This school costs tens of thousands of dollars per year and some of its notable alumni include Sean Rad, Kate Hudson, Jack Black, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jonah Hill.

Spiegel also took design classes while in high school at the Otis College of Art and Design and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.

When Evan Spiegel turned 16, he got his driver’s license and asked his father to buy him a BMW.

However, his father refused the request, and since his parents had recently divorced, Spiegel moved into his mother’s house and convinced her to lease a $75,000 car for him. He was given a Cadillac Escalade, which he took to school, parking it in the gated Southern California Edison parking lot.

The Spiegel family lived in relative luxury.

They lived in one of the richest neighborhoods in Los Angeles and were members of exclusive clubs such as the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club and the Jonathan Club in Santa Monica.

After his graduation, Spiegel enrolled in Stanford University and, while he was a student, he was a paid intern for a biomedical firm and a careers instructor in South Africa.

He also did an unpaid internship at Red Bull, working in sales. While at university, he was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity.

Spiegel studied product design at Stanford University, his father’s alma mater. This is where he met Reggie Brown and Bobby Murphy, the two friends who would later co-found Snapchat with Spiegel.

evan spiegel partying
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He reportedly lived a crazy life at the university, being social chair of the fraternity and a big party-goer. This was evident from the emails that were leaked from his time at Stanford University in 2014.

The content of the emails was rather disturbing, talking about alcohol, women, and sex.

After they were leaked, Spiegel shared a statement: “I’m obviously mortified and embarrassed that my idiotic emails during my fraternity days were made public. I have no excuse. I’m sorry I wrote them at the time and I was jerk to have written them. They in no way reflect who I am today or my views towards women.”

While he was still at Stanford, Spiegel attended a class on venture capital and entrepreneurship where he heard talks from Chad Hurley, YouTube’s co-founder, and Google’s former CEO Eric Schmidt.

After the talk, he became friends with Intuit co-founder Scott Cook, who also gave a talk, and this friendship eventually led to Spiegel working on a product for Intuit, which was planned to be released in India.

This experience reportedly inspired Spiegel to launch the Snapchat app.

Later on, Scott Cook ended up being an early Snapchat investor, even though he didn’t exactly believe in the idea.

He once stated: “I didn’t believe in the product. Who needs disappearing photos? I thought he was dead wrong on the business.”

Even though Evan Spiegel was brilliant at university, albeit rather wild, he dropped out of school just a few credits short of graduation to focus on his dream, founding Snapchat. He went on to create the business that would make him a billionaire.

Spiegel might have dropped out, but in 2018, he returned to school to complete his education. He finally graduated six years after he left school.

Fast forward to 2017, and Evan Spiegel married the Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr. The couple have three children together and co-parent Miranda’s child from her marriage to actor Orlando Bloom.

evan spiegel miranda kerr
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Evan Spiegel Net Worth: From an Idea to a Multibillion-Dollar Business

Raised in a wealthy family and only a few credits from graduation, Evan Spiegel surprised everyone when he dropped out of school.

Most people didn’t believe in his dream, but he soon became the co-founder and CEO of one of the biggest social platforms in the world, showing everyone his worth.

Let’s see how CEO Evan Spiegel built his fame and fortune.

Founding Snapchat

When Spiegel dropped out of Stanford University, he and his friends Reggie Brown and Bobby Murphy were already working on a disappearing messages app, which they initially named Picaboo.

In 2011, they developed the bulk of the app from Spiegel’s dad’s house in the Palisades – and Snapchat was born!

snapchat picaboo logo
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CEO Evan Spiegel explained the company’s idea like this:

One day you are online, you log in, and realize: This isn’t me. Everything you put on the internet is based on what you previously put on the internet. Let’s delete everything. Save what’s really important. So all you need to is organize the 1% that is worth saving

snapchat timeline
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He got this idea during a student association party at university, and while most people laughed at it, he still decided to pursue it.

As the business progressed, Snapchat moved to offices located on the Venice boardwalk, but Spiegel remained living in his father’s house for many years.

In July 2011, the first Snap app launched and was mainly spread by word of mouth, used by friends of the founders. That same year, the founders changed the app’s name from Picaboo to Snapchat.

By the end of 2012, Spiegel’s company had 1 million daily active users. On average, people were swapping 25 pictures a second, and over a billion pictures had been shared at this point.

However, the partnership didn’t exactly go well. Spiegel and Murphy started arguing with Brown and eventually forced him out of the company. Reggie Brown later sued the partners since he wasn’t given his equity, which was one-third of the business. The lawsuit was eventually settled and Snapchat paid Brown $157.5 million.

In November 2014, when Snapchat was thriving, Evan Spiegel bought his first property in Brentwood and moved out of his dad’s house. At this point, the platform was growing, so people started knocking on his door to buy the business.

As Snapchat’s CEO, Spiegel rejected a $3 billion offer from Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, in 2013.

snapchat app
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Snapchat’s IPO and Growth

In 2014, Snapchat counted 50 million daily active users.

Three years later, this number had grown to 175 million daily active users. By the end of 2017, Spiegel’s goal was to list the business on the New York Stock Exchange.

In January 2017, The Wall Street Journal reported that Murphy and Spiegel would own 45% of the total company stock after that year’s IPO.

When he and his partner Bobby Murphy decided to go for it, Spiegel was given shares that translated to a $800 million bonus to take Snap Inc. public at a $33 billion valuation.

He received 37 million additional company shares, according to the SEC regulatory filings. By the close of the IPO, he was worth $4 billion with his total share.

This bonus equals around 3% of Snapchat, which was given to the co-founder and CEO in increments over three years.

evan spiegel snapchat ipo
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At this point, Spiegel and the co-founder Murphy each wielded 50% of Snap’s Class-C shares, which gave them 10-1 voting rights.

With Spiegel’s stock award of 3% and his existing stock in the company, he has the most voting power at the company as its co-founder and CEO.

What’s most impressive is that Evan Spiegel was only 26 years old at the time, and he was one of the youngest public company CEOs to ring the opening bell on Wall Street.

In September 2016, Spiegel renamed the company to Snap Inc., calling it a “camera company”, right at the time he unveiled camera-equipped sunglasses called Spectacles.

snapchat spectacles
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Snap’s Stock Drop

Unfortunately, Snap Inc.’s stock has plunged since the IPO, and so has Spiegel’s net worth. By 2018, the platform’s share price had dropped by 80% and Snap lost 5 million users.

Snap’s downfall can be attributed to a handful of major problems.

For starters, Snapchat had security issues after it accidentally leaked some of the source code of the app. In addition to this, the platform introduced un-skippable advertisements, which weren’t positively taken by the users.

To compare, Evan Spiegel was worth over $10 billion in 2021, but by 2022, when the stock price sank, his shares fell in value by billions!

This plunge came after the company’s quarterly earnings results, which meant that the stock crashed $11.41 by market close, tanking Spiegel’s net worth by $1.4 billion. Murphy’s fortune, the chief technology officer, dropped by $1.8 billion.

Between October 21, 2021, and 2022, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel lost over $11.6 billion!

snap stock price
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Evan Spiegel’s Salaries and Stake at Snap Inc.

Back in 2016, before the IPO, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel reportedly earned $503,205 in salary, plus a bonus of $1 million. However, when the company went public a year later, his salary was reduced to $1.

As of April 2024, Snap Inc. has a market capitalization of $18.39 billion, which puts Evan Spiegel’s stake, which is reportedly 13% of Snapchat, at $2.39 billion.

Philanthropy

In February 2017, Spiegel and his partner Murphy pledged to donate upward of 13 million shares of Class A common stock over the coming two decades to arts, education, and youth non-profits. They have also created the Snap Foundation, a non-profit organization targeting these three areas.

evan spiegel philanthropy
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, the partners donated $3 million to help affected people.

In 2022, Spiegel donated $20 million to Stockton Scholars, a scholarship program in California. That same year, Spiegel announced that he and his wife would pay off the 2022 graduating class’s student debt at the Otis College of Art and Design, his alma mater.

What Else Has Evan Thomas Spiegel Invested In?

Evan Spiegel’s net worth mostly stems from his stake at Snap Inc., but it also includes some luxurious assets he’s purchased over the years. He also earned an unknown amount being on the board of directors at Gagosian Gallery, a position he has held since November 2022. In addition to this, Spiegel is a member of the Berggruen Institute’s 21st Century Council.

Real Estate Assets

In 2014, Spiegel moved out of his dad’s house and bought a three-bedroom property in Brentwood worth $3.3 million at the time.

In 2016, before he married his wife, the Australian model Miranda Kerr, the couple purchased a house in Brentwood, Los Angeles for $12 million. The house was previously owned by Harrison Ford.

This remains his primary residence, where he lives with his wife Miranda Kerr and their three children.

Luxurious Spending

In addition to his real estate holdings, Spiegel owns plenty of expensive assets and lives quite a charmed life. His security in 2016, for instance, cost $890,399 in a single year.

In 2023, it was reported that he had commissioned a $200 million superyacht in his early twenties to cruise with his wife.

Car Collection

Evan Spiegel owns a big luxury car collection including:

  • BMW 550i
  • Hyundai Accent
  • Audi A8
  • Mercedes S class
  • Jaguar XJ
  • Ferrari
  • Range Rover Vogue

The total value range for these cars is between $190,000 and $600,000.

Private Jet

Spiegel is the owner of a private jet, as well – the Gulfstream G650ER with registration N2E worth around $75 million.

What Can We Learn from Evan Spiegel’s Story?

Evan Spiegel’s journey from a privileged upbringing to becoming one of the youngest public company CEOs as the co-founder of Snap Inc., isn’t exactly a rags to riches tale but it’s still an inspiring story of ambition, innovation, and most importantly, resilience.

Spiegel has faced skepticism and setbacks at key moments of his life. He left Stanford University a few credits shy of graduation, a decision that raised eyebrows but ultimately paved the way for his financial and business success.

This teaches us an important lesson – that we must believe in our dreams and ideas even if no one else does!

Alongside his co-founders, Spiegel embarked on this seemingly impossible mission to disrupt the social media landscape, which culminated in the creation of Snap Inc. The app’s unique premise initially faced skepticism as well, but his belief in his vision is what propelled it into a global phenomenon.

As Snapchat rebounded from early challenges, Spiegel found himself at the helm of a rapidly growing company, earning recognition as one of the youngest public company leaders in history.

His bold leadership and strategic vision played a key role in guiding Snapchat through its evolution from a niche messaging platform to a social media powerhouse.

At one point, one of the biggest names in the industry, Mark Zuckerberg, came to Spiegel’s door asking to buy Snapchat, but Spiegel courageously refused his unimaginably large offer, believing in his dream.

However, his journey hasn’t been without its trials. The stock price fluctuations of Snap Inc. underscored the volatility of the market and Evan Spiegel’s net worth has been impacted significantly over the years.

Despite these challenges, Spiegel has remained steadfast in his commitment to the business, continuously working to adapt and innovate in a competitive industry.

Beyond his entrepreneurial work, Spiegel’s philanthropic efforts reflect his commitment to giving back to society. From charitable donations and initiatives aimed at supporting diverse causes, his generosity underscores the importance of using one’s success to uplift others.