A 26-Year-Old Billionaire Built Fortune on Virtual YouTube Stars
Riku Tazumi founded Anycolor when he was still a university student, and shares of his company have surged eightfold since their Tokyo debut in June.
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Japan has moved on from real-life YouTube stars to virtual ones, and a talent agency managing the humans behind those avatars has produced one of the youngest billionaires in the country.
Shares of Anycolor Inc. have jumped eightfold since going public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in June, making it one of the best performers on the market and valuing the firm at about 370 billion yen ($2.5 billion). The 45% stake its 26-year-old founder, Riku Tazumi, owns is now worth $1.1 billion, even after the yen slumped to its lowest level in decades against the US dollar.