José Manuel Ferreira Neves (born June 1974) is a Portuguese

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busi ...

and the founder of

Farfetch Farfetch is a British-Portuguese online luxury fashion retail platform that sells products from over 700 boutiques and brands from around the world. The company was founded in 2007 by the Portuguese entrepreneur José Neves with its headquarters ...

, a global luxury fashion online platform.

Early life

José Neves was born in June 1974. He grew up in

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropo ...

, Portugal, where his grandfather owned a shoe factory. He studied economics at the University of Porto.

Career

Neves founded his first tech company, Grey Matter, while studying at university. The company provided software for clothing manufacturers. In the same year, he founded a software firm called Platforme for small fashion brands in 1996. In 1996, at the age of 22, he launched a footwear brand named Swear, and opened a store in London. The brand sold to other shops. He started a retail fashion store named bstore on

Savile Row Savile Row (pronounced ) is a street in Mayfair, central London. Known principally for its traditional bespoke tailoring for men, the street has had a varied history that has included accommodating the headquarters of the Royal Geographical ...

in London in 2001. In 2008, Neves founded

. In June 2017, Farfetch sold a minority stake to JD.com, for US$397 million, prior to launching in China. In September 2018, following the IPO of Farfetch on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its liste ...

, Neves' stake in the company was valued at US$1.4 billion.

Personal life

Neves is married and has five children, living in

Guimarães Guimarães () is a city and municipality located in northern Portugal, in the district of Braga. Its historic town centre has been listed as a UNESCWorld Heritage Sitesince 2001, in recognition for being an "exceptionally well-preserved and ...

, Portugal. Neves has an apartment in

Clerkenwell Clerkenwell () is an area of central London, England. Clerkenwell was an ancient parish from the mediaeval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington. The well after which it was named was redis ...

, London, and travels widely for work.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neves, Jose 1974 births Living people People from Porto University of Porto alumni Portuguese billionaires People from Guimarães