Aussie Tech Tycoons Join World's Richest After Atlassian Soars

(Bloomberg) -- Atlassian Corp.'s rise to a record on Friday has catapulted its two Australian co-founders onto the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The fortunes of co-Chief Executive Officers Michael Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar have risen $1.1 billion in 2018 to $4.1 billion apiece, making them the 499th and 500th richest people on the planet.

Atlassian makes work-collaboration products like HipChat and Trello, which it bought for $425 million last year. The Sydney-based company saw billings grow 43 percent in the three months ending Dec. 31, helping its share price jump by a third so far this year. The business, which has more than 100,000 customers, doesn't have a sales force and prefers to rely on word of mouth to generate sales, Farquhar said in February.

The pair, who founded Atlassian in 2002, have become figureheads for Australia's tech scene and they're already used to rubbing shoulders with billionaires. Last year, Cannon-Brookes lost a high-profile bet with Tesla Inc.'s Elon Musk over the installation of the world's largest lithium battery in South Australia.

To contact the reporters on this story: Tom Metcalf in New York at tmetcalf7@bloomberg.net, Andrew Heathcote in London at aheathcote4@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Steven Crabill

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