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Tech
Sam Shead and Rob Price
The British tech scene can't help but compare itself enviously to Silicon Valley.
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It doesn't have the multi-hundred-billion-dollar tech giants like Facebook and Google, or the 11-digit billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg and bill Gates.
But at the end of the day, the British tech scene has still produced significant fortunes — including more than half a dozen billionaires.
The Sunday Times has just released the 2017 edition of its annual Rich List of the wealthiest people in Britain. From Autonomy's Mike Lynch to Skype cofounderNiklas Zennström, there's significant numbers of tech figures present.
Business Insider has rounded up the 25 wealthiest tech entrepreneurs and investors in Britain today. (You can see the full list over at The Sunday Times.)
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25. Michael and Xochi Birch — Net worth: £317 million
Where the money came from: Birchstarted the Bebo social networking site with his wife in 2005. They made£357 million when they sold it to AOL, before buying it back for £600,000 in 2013.
Ages:46 and 45
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List: 317
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24. Jan Mol —Net worth: £365 million
Where the money came from: Mol founded software company Volmac in 1966, and now funds his son Michiel's projects, including space exploration via the Space Expedition Corporation.
Age: 76
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List: =365
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23. Peter Wilkinson — Net worth: £385 million
Where the money came from: The veteran entrepreneur founded Sports Internet Group, which was sold to BSkyB for more than £300 million, as well as InTechnology,
Age: 62
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List: =313
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22. Ricardo Zacconi — Net worth: £387 million
Where the money came from: Zacconi cofounded King, the gaming studio behind "Candy Crush." The company was acquired by Activision Blizzard in 2015 in a deal thatvalued Zacconi's stake at £376 million.
Age: 49
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List: 312
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21. Declan Ganley —Net worth: £400 million
Where the money came from: Ganley, from Ireland, is a telecoms entrepreneur, and CEO of Rivada Networks.
Age: 48
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List: =299
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20. Mike Lynch — Net worth: £469 million
Where the money came from:Lynch founded the software company Autonomy, which then sold to HP for £6.5 billion ($9.94 billion).
Age:51
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List:267
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19. Peter Jones —Net worth: £475 million
Where the money comes from:The entrepreneur seen on "Dragon's Den" launched Brandpath in 2015, a merger of his previous telecoms investments. He also founded Phones International.
Age: 51
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List: =262
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18. Mel Morris — Net worth: £500 million
Where the money came from: Morris owns football team Derby County, and provided seed funding for King Digital, the company behind "Candy Crush."
Age: 61
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List: =245
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17. Dan Craddock —Net worth: £500 million
Where the money came from: Craddock is in charge of DLA Group, which provides IT consulting and software development. He's also chairman of Vannin Capital, as well as managing director of Bramden Investments.
Age: 39
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List: =245
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16. Kevin Cash — Net worth: £500 million
Where the money came from:Cash has invested in a number of internet firms, as well as London real estate.
Age: 53
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List:=245
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15. Sir Peter Rigby — Net worth: £600 million
Where the money came from:Rigby is behind Specialist Computers, one of the country's largest independent IT suppliers
Age: 73
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List:=209
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14. Andrey Andreev —Net worth: £700 million
Where the money came from:Andreev created Badoo in 2006, a London-basedsocial network with a focus on dating.
Age: 43
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List:=184
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13. Mahmud Kamani and family — Net worth: £732 million
Where the money came from: Kamani is the cofounder of fashion retailer Manchester-based Boohoo.
Age: 52
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List:175
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12. David Ross —Net worth: £803 million
Where the money came from:Ross' sub-billion-dollar fortune comes from co-founding mobile phoneretailer Carphone Warehouse.
Age: 51
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List: 160
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11. Mo Ibrahim — Net worth: £904 million
Where the money came from:Sudanese-born, Ibrahim's fortune comes from telecoms, and he founded African telecommunications company Celtel.
Age: 71
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List: 143
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10. Sir Charles Dunstone — Net worth: £946 million
Where the money came from:Dunstone cofounded mobile phoneretail chain The Carphone Warehouse, and also chairsthe TalkTalk group.
Age:52
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List:137
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9. Niklas Zennström — Net worth: £1 billion
Where the money came from:Zennström is one of the cofounders of internet communications platform Skype.
Age:51
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List:132
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8. Sir Terry Matthews — Net worth: £1.2 billion
Where the money came from:Matthews is a telecoms entrepreneur, who startedout working at British Telecom and wenton to found Mitel and Newbridge Networks.
Age:73
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List:114
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7. Simon Nixon — Net worth: £1.2 billion
Where the money came from:In 1993, Nixon createdMoneysupermarket.com, a price comparison site. It had 2014 revenues of £248 million ($380 million).
Age:49
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List:112
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6. John Caudwell — Net worth: £1.5 billion
Where the money came from:The Caudwell Group, launched in 1986, soldmobile phoneswhile they were still in their infancy — making Caudwell rich. Its retail arm was Phones 4u. Caudwell ultimately sold on the business in 2006.
Age:64
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List:82
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5. Scott Farquhar — Net worth: £1.7 billion
Where the money came from:Farquhar is one of the two cofounders of software company Atlassian.
Age:37
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List:=71
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4. Mike Cannon-Brookes — Net worth: £1.7 billion
Where the money came from:Cannon-Brookes cofounded software company Atlassian.
Age:37
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List:=71
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3. Teddy Sagi — Net worth: £2.5 billion
Where the money came from:Sagi founded Playtech in 1999, a software company that helps power online gaming and gambling.
Age:45
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List:45
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2. Sir Michael Moritz and Harriet Heyman —Net worth: £2.6 billion
Where the money comes from:Moritz is chairman of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Michael Moritz. He has invested in PayPal, Google, Yahoo!, Zappos, YouTube, and numerous other tech companies. He has also written a book on Apple.
Age:62
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List:44
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1. Sir James Dyson and family — Net worth: £7.8 billion
Where the money came from:Dyson is a prolific British inventor, and famous for his high-tech hoovers.
Age:70
Overall rank on the Sunday Times Rich List:14
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