How WhatsApp founder Jan Koum went from collecting food Stamps to dropping a historic $200 million donation
WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum has donated $200 million to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. The Israeli hospital has said the donation, made by the Koum Family Foundation, is the largest single gift to any hospital in the country’s history. The donation comes decades after Koum and his mother began their American journey, relying on government assistance and food stamps after moving to the US. This historic donation marks a major change in his financial journey from an immigrant teenager struggling to make ends meet to the co-founder of a company acquired for $19 billion by Facebook parent Meta.According to a report by the Times of Jerusalem, Koum’s latest donation will fund the expansion of the medical centre, including a new 24-story building covering more than 1.5 million square feet, with new surgical and emergency care facilities. The hospital will also be renamed Koum Shaare Zedek Medical Center.“This gift reflects our confidence in a future of medical innovation and research that will benefit patients in Israel and around the world,” Koum said in a statement. The donation is bigger than the $180 million gift made by Shmuel and Anat Harlap to Rabin Medical Center, also known as Beilinson Hospital, in August 2025 for the construction of the “Tower of Hope.”
WhatsApp founder Jan Koum’s early life
Koum was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, and moved to the US with his mother when he was 16. The pair settled in Mountain View, California, where they received government assistance, including food stamps and an apartment.Koum worked as a janitor at a grocery store to help support the household, while his mother worked as a babysitter. His father remained in Ukraine and later died in 1997. Koum’s mother was diagnosed with cancer and died in 2000.Koum taught himself computer networking and later enrolled at San Jose State University. He eventually left college after joining Yahoo as an infrastructure engineer. He worked at the company for nearly a decade, where he also met Brian Acton, who would later become his WhatsApp co-founder.The two left Yahoo in 2007 and spent time travelling before Koum began working on the idea that would become WhatsApp.
How Jan Koum built WhatsApp
Koum bought an iPhone in January 2009 and saw the potential of Apple’s newly launched App Store. He began developing an application that initially focused on showing status information alongside contacts.WhatsApp was incorporated in California on February 24, 2009. The service later evolved into a messaging platform after Apple’s push notifications allowed users to receive alerts when they were not actively using the application.Acton joined Koum as a co-founder later that year. The company initially focused on allowing users to exchange messages using their phone numbers rather than relying on traditional SMS services.WhatsApp’s user base grew rapidly, and the company eventually raised funding from Sequoia Capital. By February 2013, WhatsApp had around 200 million active users.In February 2014, Facebook agreed to acquire WhatsApp in a deal valued at $19 billion. Koum owned a significant stake in the company and became a billionaire following the acquisition.Koum’s signing of the acquisition agreement also became notable because he returned to the former North County Social Services office in Mountain View, where he had once collected food stamps. He signed the deal there and sent a photograph of the moment to Forbes.
