Background and career
Philippe Kahn (born 16 March 1952) is a French engineer, entrepreneur, and founder of four technology companies: Borland, Starfish Software, LightSurf Technologies, and Fullpower Technologies. Kahn is credited with creating the first camera phone, being a pioneer for wearable technology intellectual property, and is the author of dozens of technology patents covering Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) modeling, wearable, eyewear, smartphone, mobile, imaging, wireless, synchronization and medical technologies.
Philippe Kahn is the son of Charles-Henri Kahn (1915–1999) and Claire Monis (1922–1967). Kahn was born and raised in Paris, France. His mother was a French singer, actress, and violinist, raised in Paris by parents who had fled the Russian pogroms. Arrested in 1942 for being Lieutenant in the French Resistance, she was 21 years old when she was sent to the Auschwitz extermination camp. She survived as a member of the Auschwitz Women's Orchestra conducted by Alma Rosé. After his parents separated in 1957, Philippe Kahn was raised solely by his mother. He was only 15 years old when his mother died in a car accident in Paris. Kahn was educated in mathematics at the ETH Zurich, Switzerland (Swiss Federal Polytechnic Institute), on a full scholarship and University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, France. He received a master's in mathematics. He also received a master's in musicology composition and classical flute performance at the Zurich Music Conservatory in Switzerland. As a student, Kahn developed software for the MICRAL, which is credited by the Computer History Museum as the first ever microprocessor-based personal computer.
Kahn has founded four software companies: Borland, founded in 1982 (acquired by Micro Focus in 2009), Starfish Software, founded in 1994 (acquired by Motorola in 1998, and subsequently Google in 2011), LightSurf Technologies, founded in 1998 (acquired by Verisign in 2005), and Fullpower Technologies, founded in 2005.
Kahn co-founded Borland in 1982, and was its CEO until 1995. At the time it was a competitor of Microsoft's, and produced programming language compilers and software development tools. Its first product, Turbo Pascal, sold for $49.95 at a time when programming tools cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. Kahn was president, CEO, and chairman of Borland and, without venture capital, took Borland from no revenues to a US$500 million run-rate. Kahn and the Borland board came to a disagreement on how to focus the company. In January 1995, he was forced by the board to resign from his position as CEO, and he founded Starfish Software. Kahn encouraged a collegial and hard-charging atmosphere at Borland, which attracted and cultivated technology leaders including Anders Hejlsberg, creator of Turbo Pascal, and Marc Randolph, cofounder of Netflix.
Starfish Software was founded in 1995 by Philippe Kahn as a spin-off from the Simplify business unit from Borland and Kahn's severance from Borland. TrueSync was the first Over-The-Air (OTA) synchronization system. Starfish was successfully acquired by Motorola for US$325 million in 1998.
Kahn and his wife Sonia co-founded multimedia messaging company LightSurf Technologies in 1998. LightSurf commercialized Picture-Mail and the camera phone. In 2005, LightSurf was acquired by Verisign for US$300 million. Syniverse Technologies acquired Lightsurf from Verisign in 2009.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
