Right now it is anchored off the coast of Porroig, but it can be seen from further away. It is the superyacht ‘Moonrise’, a spectacular vessel valued at 220 million euros, 100 meters long and 16 meters wide, which has just arrived in Ibiza from Gibraltar.
The yacht has two support vessels. The ‘Power Play’, a 2018-built Sea Axe YS5009 wonder, initially held that title. With a length of 53 meters, the ‘Power Play’ offers accommodation for six guests and a crew of 20. However, the yacht’ Moonrise’ has recently been outfitted with a new companion, the ‘Nebula’who assumes the role of support vessel main.
The ‘Moonrise’ is the ultimate expression of luxury, to such an extent, that it has its own own enclosed helicopter hangar. It has eight cabins and capacity for 32 crew members.
She is owned by Ukrainian Jan Koum, 49a billionaire who has a tough story behind him. He came to the United States from Ukraine in 1992 with his mother and grandmother. At the age of 16, this young man of Jewish origin worked as a cleaner in a supermarket in California and the family had to go to soup kitchens to put something in their mouths. This experience would mark him for life.
Jan was never a good student, but at the age of 18 he became interested in programming, so he enrolled at San Jose State University, but in 1997 he was hired by Yahoo and dropped out of school. There he met one of his best friends, Grian Acton, and they both decided to leave Yahoo to try their luck on their own.
And then came… WhatsApp
Jan Koum began to show interest in the world of mobile applications thanks to the development of a messaging service for iPhone. He had several ideas, one of them related to showing when a contact was connected or not to his smartphone. A service that he would later incorporate into WhatsApp.
On February 24, 2009, Jan Koum and Brian Acton founded WhatsApp Inc. in California. The name of the instant messaging application comes from the English expression “What’s up?”.
Jan Koum, co-founder of WhatsApp / Wikipedia
However, months after its launch, WhatsApp was not taking off and its continuity was in danger. Investments from former Yahoo colleagues served to keep the application running until 2011 when the Sequoia equity fund invested $8 million in WhatsApp. At that point WhatsApp took off and grew to become the leading mobile messaging app in the market today. This caught the attention of Facebook’s owner, Mark Zuckerberg.
On February 9, 2014, Zuckerberg invited Koum to dinner at his home and formally propose to buy WhatsApp. Ten days later, Facebook announced the acquisition of WhatsApp for $19 billion. The story goes that he signed this agreement in front of the door of the soup kitchen where he used to go with his mother, who died of cancer in 2000.
He is a fervent fan of Porsche and is the proud owner of a vast collection that includes more than 100 cars of this brand. “For me, a Porsche always represented the epitome of success. And the desire to have a car like that was a key incentive for me to learn more and push myself even harder,” Koum once said.
His collection, which included a rare Porsche 918 Spyder Weissach 2015 and a yellow 1993 Porsche 964 Carrera RS 3.8, experienced a slight downsizing in early 2019 when Koum auctioned off 10 of his vehicles due to lack of garage space.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.