Ingvar Kamprad was born on 30 March 1926, in Elmtaryd, Sweden, of part-German descent, and was a businessman, mostly known as the founder of IKEA, the company that designs and sells furniture, home accessories and appliances. Ingvar is the richest person in Sweden. He passed away in 2018.
So just how how rich WAs Ingvar Kamprad? It has been estimated by authoritative sources that Ingvar’s net worth was over $3.5 billion at the time of his passing – actually the second richest person in Europe – with the majority of his and IKEA’s assets and revenue under a foundation located in Liechtenstein. However, there is no doubt that IKEA is one of the most successful companies of its type in the world, so very likely it will bring money to Kamprad’s family for a long time into the future.
Ingvar Kamprad Net Worth $3.5 Billion
From a very young age Ingvar dreamt about becoming a successful businessman. While still being just a young boy, Kamprad started to sell matches bought cheaply in Stockholm to his neighbors, and making a profit. Later Ingvar sold seeds, fish, pencils and other items. Probably no one thought that he might develop into one of the most successful businessmen, and make himself one of the richest people in the world. In 1943 when just 17, Kamprad founded IKEA – this acronym is closely relelated to Ingvar himself, as I and K are the initials of his name and E and A represent Elmtaryd, where he was born, and Agunnaryd, the village near Elmtaryd where he was raised. The success of this company had a huge impact on the growth of Ingvar Kamprad’s net worth. Now IKEA owns over 350 stores in more than 50 countries all over the world. In 2013 Ingvar decided to leave the board of IKEA, but still remained as one of the most successful businessmen, possibly still adding to his net worth.
It addition to his successful business, Kamprad also wrote 2 books: “A Testament of a Furniture Dealer” and “Leading by Design: The IKEA Story”, which no doubt added to Ingvar Kamprad’s net worth.
Kamprad also owned a villa in Switzerland, where he lived from the ’70s until 2014, plus an estate in Sweden and a vineyard in France.
In his personal life, Kamrad was married to Kerstin Wadling (1950-60) – they adopted a daughter. He was then married to Margaretha Stennert from 1963 until her passing in 2011, and with whom he had three sons.
Despite the fact that Kamprad is one of the richest men in the world, he kept things simple. When travelling, he chose to travel in economy class, he recycled and tried to re-use items as much as he could. Maybe this character feature of him is one reason that he was so successful. Ingvar was a example of how it doesn’t matter how much you earn, you can still be simple and enjoy life without trying to show off.
Ingvar was a noted philanthropist, and founded the charitable foundation called Stichting INGKA Foundation, which aims at promoting new ideas in the sphere of architecture, and also helps disadvantaged children.
