The top 50 billionaire inventors

Travis Kalanick – Estimated Net Worth Today: $4B.

Kalanick, who cofounded ride-hailing firm Uber in 2009, stepped down as CEO in June 2017 and left the board on Dec. 31, 2019.

UBER creators, Travis Kalanick and Garret Camp came up with the idea on a snowy evening in Paris in 2008. The two had trouble hailing a cap and came up with the simple idea of tapping a button on their phone in order to get a ride.

In November and December 2019, Kalanick – who had owned about 4% of Uber – sold all his shares for more than $2.5 billion (before taxes).

He holds several patents, one of them is “Providing user feedback for transport services through the use of mobile devices”, this patent application by Uber Technologies Inc encapsulates the app that has changed the face of transport forever.

The invention allows consumers with smartphones to submit a trip request, which the software program then automatically sends to the Uber driver nearest to the consumer, alerting the driver to the location of the customer.