Pavel Durov

$17.07B
as of 01/18/26

About Pavel Durov

Pavel Durov is the founder and owner of messaging app Telegram, which has more than 1 billion monthly active users worldwide.

Telegram, which is free to use, competes with messaging apps like Facebook's WhatsApp.

Durov left Russia after refusing to cooperate with the secret service and provide encrypted data of his first social network's users. Telegram was banned in Russia from 2018 to 2021.

Durov became a French citizen in 2021 but lives in Dubai.

Durov, who has six children between three ex-girlfriends, claims to have donated sperm that fathered 100 children in 12 countries.

Personal stats

Citizenship

United Arab Emirates

Source of wealth

Messaging app

Residence

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Marital status

Single

Birth date

10/10/84 (age 41)

Number of children

6

Education

Master of Science, Saint Petersburg State University

Self-made

self-made

Pavel Durov’s fortune is worth

285K

troy ounces of gold

263K

median U.S. household

171K

median U.S. income

0.341%

U.S. credit card volume

0.068%

GDP of the United States

0.05%

United States debt

Net worth history

Annual ranking

Did you know?

In 2018 Pavel, with his brother Nikolai, raised $1.7 billion from investors to create TON, a blockchain system; it was shut down after the SEC banned it.

Net worth over time

Real-time ranking

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