Forbes has just released its round-up of the world's billionaires and this year's list boasts a record 233 new additions. From the Irish brothers in their twenties to the 77-year-old tequila tycoon, we take a closer look at the most notable newcomers on the 2017 list.

Surfer and rock climber Yvon Chouinard has transformed his passion for nature and adventure into a wildly successful apparel business. Chouinard established sustainable outdoor clothing firm Patagonia in 1973. By 2015, the company was turning over $750 million (£601m), with a hefty portion of its profits donated to worthy causes.

The co-founder of popular British financial comparison website Moneysupermarket.com, Simon Nixon makes his debut on the Forbes list this year. The internet finance whiz, who has since moved into the luxury vacation industry, sold the last of his shares in the site last March, netting $155 million (£124m).

Norwegian Torstein Hagen launched Viking Cruises in 1997 with just four vessels, and has since added an additional 56 cruise ships to the fleet. Starting out offering simple river excursions in Europe, the firm now operates upscale cruises in the Mediterranean, Caribbean and Baltic Seas, and has made its founder very rich indeed.

Scion of India's mega-rich Burman family, Saket Burman traces his fortune back to his great-great-grandfather SK Burman, who founded Dabur, India's largest Ayurvedic medicine firm in 1884. The hard-working heir sits on the Dabur board and has started up a number of companies in the UAE.

South African investment guru Jannie Mouton, aka 'Buddha Buffett', thought his career was over in 1995 when he was fired from SMK, the stockbroking company he helped set up. Instead of throwing in the towel, Mouton went on to found PSG, which he has grown into one of the largest investment firms in South Africa.

Papa John's founder John Schnatter launched the world-famous pizza business in 1983 from a broom closet in his father's failing tavern in Jeffersonville, Indiana. The company now has 4,700 outlets worldwide and a workforce of 20,700, and is rich enough to sponsor the Super Bowl.

Edgar Sia opened the first of his Mang Inasal barbecue restaurants in 2003 and now operates 460 outlets in the Philippines. The fast food tycoon has since branched out into real estate and owns a stake in DoubleDragon Properties, a property developer that is planning to build hundreds of malls in the country.

A Silicon Valley legend, Marc Andreessen set up web browser company Netscape in 1994 and his venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has invested in some of the world's most recognizable and successful internet companies, including Facebook and Instagram, considerably boosting his personal wealth.

Another motivating rags-to-riches story, Yoshiko Shinohara launched her female-focused employment firm Temp Holdings in 1973 from a cramped Tokyo apartment and has gone on to build a multibillion-dollar business empire. Thanks to a surging share price – Shinohara owns 25% of the company – the HR specialist is now worth $1.1 billion (£882m).

Lucy Peng co-founded Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba in 1999, and has played a pivotal role in its success. But it is her stake in Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial that has secured Peng's place in the billionaires club. Last year, the $60 billion (£48bn) off-shoot smashed the record for the world's largest private fundraising found for an internet firm, raising $4.5 billion (£3.6bn).

Like Saket Burman, Katarina Martinson owns a sizable chunk of a family firm. Along with her sister Louise Lindh, the Swedish heiress, who was educated at the London School of Economics, has a 14% stake in Lundbergs AB, the investment company founded by her grandfather Lars Erik Lundberg.

Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison joined the world's most exclusive club last November when Stripe, the payment processing start-up they founded in 2010, was valued at $9.2 billion (£7.38bn) in a lucrative funding round. Both in their twenties, John (pictured on the right), who is just 26, is now the youngest self-made billionaire on the planet.

Only 25 of the newcomers are female and just 15 are self-made, including Vietnamese budget airline billionaire Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao. The real estate mogul turned airline exec took VietJet Air public in February, bagging herself a tidy sum. As founder and CEO of the low-cost carrier, Thao has delivered astonishing growth and is working to make VietJet Air 'the Emirates of Asia'.

Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom has been admitted into the billionaire club by virtue of his bumper share portfolio. Systrom received a load of Instagram stock when Facebook bought the mobile photo-sharing service in 2012, and shares in the company have skyrocketed in value since.

Bryan Sheffield set up Parsley Energy in 2008 after acquiring his grandfather Joe Parsley's old oil wells in Texas. Despite coinciding with a period in which oil prices have significantly decreased, Parsley Energy has seen explosive growth. Last year, shares in the company surged by 94%.

Dubbed 'the Elon Musk of China', Liu Ruopeng heads Kuang-Chi Science, one of the country's most innovative firms. The fast-growing tech company is working to produce the world's first mass-market jetpack and is currently investing in solar-powered cargo airships and artificial intelligence.

Super-smart and ambitious, Vijay Sharma started college at the age of 15 and set up his first company during his stint there, which he later sold for $1 million (£800k). Sharma now runs Paytm, India's largest mobile payment company, which was valued at over $5 billion (£4bn) last year.

An inspirational rags-to-riches story, Australian toy tycoon Manny Stul was born in a German refugee camp in 1948 to Holocaust survivors, who fled to Australia the following year. In 2000, Stul took over Moose Toys, which is now famous for its Shopkins and Trash Pack ranges, and has turned the firm around spectacularly over the past 17 years, boosting sales by more than 7,200%.

Real estate magnate Sergei Gordeev is the main shareholder of the Pik Group, which has become one of Russia's leading residential developers under his control. The company acquired the rival Morton Group last year, considerably boosting its majority owner's fortune.

Thai-born, Korean-American businesswoman Thai Lee heads IT firm SHI International, the largest female-owned enterprise in the US. The computer software, hardware and IT solutions company, which was established in 1991, raked in $9.5 billion (£7.6bn) last year, pushing Lee's fortune into the big league.

Along with her sisters Jane Goldman and Diane Kemper, leading horticulturalist Amy Goldman Fowler makes her first appearance on the list. The world-renowned plant expert has a stake in her late father Sol Goldman's real estate empire and owns swathes of New York City.

At 77, tequila tycoon Juan Beckmann Vidal is the oldest newcomer on the list and the richest one to boot, with a fortune of $5.2 billion (£4.2bn). Vidal owns 77% of Jose Cuervo, which went public on the Mexican stock exchange in February, giving him the mother of all windfalls.