Ingvar Feodor Kamprad is a Swedish  and the founder of IKEA

IKEA

IKEA is a privately held, international home products company that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture such as beds and desks, appliances and home accessories. The company is the world's largest furniture retailer...

, a retail company.

According to Forbes

Forbes

Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...

magazine, as of 2011 he is the 162nd wealthiest person in the world with an estimated net worth

Net worth

In business, net worth is the total assets minus total outside liabilities of an individual or a company. For a company, this is called shareholders' preference and may be referred to as book value. Net worth is stated as at a particular year in time...

 of around US$6 billion in 2011. According to Swedish business weekly Veckans Affärer

Veckans Affärer

Veckans Affärer is a Swedish business journal published weekly, dealing in all business-related matters both within and outside Sweden....

, he is the wealthiest person in the world with an estimated wealth of between $50bn and $90bn, owning the IKEA franchise through Interogo Foundation

Interogo Foundation

Interogo Foundation is a foundation registered in Liechtenstein. It owns Inter IKEA Holding S.A. registered in Luxembourg, which owns Inter IKEA Systems B.V, and thereby controls the intellectual property of the IKEA brand. Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, and his family control the Interogo...

 and Stichting INGKA Foundation

Stichting INGKA Foundation

The Stichting INGKA Foundation is a Dutch foundation founded in 1982 by Ingvar Kamprad, the Swedish billionaire, who is founder and chairman of IKEA. INGKA is one of the largest charitable foundations in the world. The name "INGKA" comes from a contraction of his name; "Stichting" is the Dutch...

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Ingvar Kamprad was born in Pjätteryd, now part of Älmhult Municipality

Älmhult Municipality

Älmhult Municipality is a municipality in central Kronoberg County in southern Sweden, where the town of Älmhult is seat.In 1901 Älmhult was detached from Stenbrohult and made a market town...

, and grew up on a farm called Elmtaryd (now spelled Älmtaryd), near the small village of Agunnaryd

Agunnaryd

Agunnaryd is a locality and a parish situated in Ljungby Municipality, Kronoberg County, Sweden with 215 inhabitants in 2005.Agunnaryd is chiefly associated with the industrialist Ingvar Kamprad, who founded IKEA . It has one school, a kindergarten, a small supermarket named 'Mat öppet', and four...

 in Ljungby Municipality

Ljungby Municipality

Ljungby Municipality is a municipality in Kronoberg County, southern Sweden, where the town Ljungby is seat.In 1971 the City of Ljungby was amalgamated with the rural municipalities surrounding it, thus creating the present municipality. In 1974 a minor adjustment of the boundaries took place...

 in the province of Småland

Småland

' is a historical province in southern Sweden.Småland borders Blekinge, Scania or Skåne, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name Småland literally means Small Lands. . The latinized form Smolandia has been used in other languages...

, Sweden.

He is a second generation Swede of German descent, his grandfather having moved the family to Sweden from Germany.
Kamprad began to develop a business as a young boy, selling match

Match

A match is a tool for starting a fire under controlled conditions. A typical modern match is made of a small wooden stick or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by frictional heat generated by striking the match against a suitable surface...

es to neighbors from his bicycle

Bicycle

A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....

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