CEO and co-founder of Deputy, Ashik Ahmed, is now worth $148 million Collected

38-year-old Bangladeshi Ashik Ahmed has been ranked 25th in the Australian Financial Review Young Rich list this week

Ashik Ahmed left Bangladesh when he was 17-year-old, and soon began flipping burgers at a fast-food chain restaurant in Melbourne.

"I was an hourly-paid worker myself so I saw all the challenges on this side, and I also got to see it from the employer's side in managing the employees," Ahmed said.

That exposure, along with Ahmed's passion for mathematics and science, saw him co-found workforce management system Deputy in 2008, a recent article by SBS mentions.

The software helps business owners maintain a roster and pay their employees. The company now boasts a client list of more than 184,000, including Qantas and NASA.

Australian Financial Review Young Rich list, released this week, listed the 38-year-old at number 25.

His company is now worth $148 million.

However, money is not what motivates him, Ahmed says.

"I think money is never a goal; it is rather an outcome of things happening," he said.

"I never did it for the money and I still would not. It does not matter whether I am in the rich list or not, it does not change why I get out of bed every morning," he said.

Data has shown that rich Australians are getting richer, while most wages are stagnating in the job market.

Ahmed says he is driven by wanting to provide a solution to this problem.

"Validation in life comes from enriching other people's lives," he said.

"I think especially migrant entrepreneurs, my advice to them is that Australia is such a great place is to seek out an opportunity and maximize it, and to follow your passion to enrich another person's life," Ahmed said.

Gender imbalance

Although technology players make up more than a third of this year's Young Rich List, among the 103 people listed, only nine are female.

"With software or an online market place, you can instantly scale that up to the world relatively quickly, if you have got something that solves problems for people," author Michael Bailey said.

"So compared with slogging it out in Australia and then gradually expanding in a traditional business, the path to wealth is much greater."

"It is caused because technology is increasing on the list, and that is a sector that has struggled to get great female graduates and great female founders," Mr Bailey said.

The total wealth of those on the list almost doubled this year to $41 billion, with CEO of Atlassian Mike Cannon-Brookes ranked in the top spot. He is worth more than $13 billion.