Eduardo Saverin

Eduardo Saverin

Brazil-born Eduardo Saverin met Mark Zuckerberg when they were both studying at Harvard University in 2004, subsequently co-founding Facebook with Zuckerberg and three others. In 2005, Saverin was booted out of the company, with his initial one-third stake watered down to 4 percent, worth about $4 billion.

In 2012, just before Facebook’s Initial Public Offering (IPO), Saverin renounced his US citizenship. It was said that this move could save him on taxes, requiring him only to pay an exit tax on Facebook’s valuation before the IPO. However, Saverin asserted that this decision was based on his ‘interest of living and working in Singapore’. As an angel investor, he now invests into startups like Jumio (a credit card validation company), ShopSavvy (a mobile shopping application) and RedMart (a Singapore-based online grocery store).