Xu Yangtian is the founder and chief executive of Shein Group, the Chinese fashion retailer that was valued at $66 billion in a May 2023 funding round. The online seller was founded in Nanjing, China in 2008 and by 2022 was the largest fast fashion company in the US market. Shein Group had revenue of $22.7 billion in 2022.
Xu’s fortune is derived from his stake in Shein Group, the online retailer that has the biggest share of the US fast fashion market. Shein had revenue of $22.7 billion in 2022, according to a Feb. 17, 2023 Financial Times report.
He’s credited with a 33% stake based on an analysis of company filings and assumed dilution from funding rounds.
Shein was valued at $100 billion in an April 2022 funding round. Three months later the company was valued at $70 billion in private trades. Shein closed a funding round in May 2023 that valued the company at $66 billion, according to a Bloomberg News report. This analysis was updated on Aug. 1, 2023 to reflect the $66 billion figure and this led to a decrease in the net worth calculation of about $2 billion.
A spokesperson for Shein said the company doesn’t disclose financial details because it’s closely-held and disputed the accuracy of the founders’ fortunes without elaborating further.
Biography
Education: Qingdao University
Xu was born in China’s eastern Shandong province in 1983. After studying international trade in college, he briefly worked in an online marketing company to help boost search traffic for websites.
He set up his first e-commerce venture with two partners in 2008. The women’s clothing and accessories business wasn’t successful but it resulted in him meeting the people who helped him build Shein. Eventual billionaires Miao, Gu and Ren were among those who joined him when he founded Shein in Nanjing in 2012.
Shein’s valuation reached $2.5 billion in 2018 and doubled the next year. The company had sales of $16 billion in 2021 and was worth $100 billion by April 2022.
Milestones
- 2012 Shein is founded in Nanjing, China.
- 2020 Sales tops $10 billion globally.
- 2021 Global revenue exceeds $16 billion.
- 2022 Valuation reaches $100 billion.
