Sportsmen, rock stars, pop singers and actors eagerly support startups, as they see big financial opportunities on the horizon. It’s common especially in the US where both tech and entertainment industries are huge. Well, celebrities that invest in startups don’t do it only because they are lovers of modern technology…
Sportsmen, rock stars, pop singers and actors eagerly invest in startups, especially in the US where both tech and entertainment industries are huge. There is a group of celebrities who’ve even launched their own funds. They know where to drop their dollars, that’s for sure. Who invested in what and was it worth it?
Ashton Kutcher
Ashton Kutcher is not only an actor & producer but also an investor & co-founder of A-Grade Investments venture fund. He has made over 70 investments so far, including:
Flipboard – a social media ‘magazine’ founded in 2010
Skype – voice-over Internet protocol service (sold to Microsoft for $8,5 million)
Foursquare – mobile social network
Path – photo-sharing and messaging app
Uber – multinational online transportation network company
AirBnB – the website that allows users to offer their homes or their sofas as an alternative to hotels,
YPlan – app allowing users to find exclusive events happening that night and book tickets with one click,
Spotify – digital music service
Shazam – music app
Bono
Paul Hewson, better known as Bono, has co-founded an Elevation Partners – private equity firm focused on large-scale investments in media, entertainment, and technology in 2004. Some of his investments include:
Facebook – social network ($270 million stake)
Dropbox – cloud storage and sharing,
Yelp – consumer business review website ($100 million stake)
Sonos
Vamo (vacation itinerary planner) Marketshare (analytic company)
There were also some failures, like a $117 million stake in SDI Media which was taken by debtors and a $325 million investment in smartphone maker Palm, which produced a modest $25 million gain.
Ellen DeGeneres
This stand-up comedian and television host has also made some good investments, like:
$1,5 million stake in Stamped – an app Stamped which allows users to track their favorite things which was acquired by Yahoo for $10 million
She also has launched her own apps, like: Ellen’s App, Ellentube App, Heads Up and Psych!
Jared Leto
A musician and an oscar-winning actor who is also one of the silent investors of Silicon Valley, has made more than 50 investments so far, including:
Nest is a home automation producer of programmable, self-learning, sensor-driven, Wi-Fi-enabled thermostats, smoke detectors, and other security systems – acquired by Google for $3,2 billion in cash 🙂
Zenefits – a company offering cloud-based SaaS to companies for managing their human resources, with a particular focus on helping them with health insurance coverage
Meerkat – mobile app that enables users to broadcast live video streaming through their mobile device
Reddit – an entertainment, social news networking service, and news website
AirBnB
Slack
Uber
Wish
Leto also admitted that he really wanted to invest in Instagram but it was too late – a few days later the app was bought by Facebook. He also has his own startup named Vyrt. Watch the video below where Leto admits that he was the one begging companies for a possibility to invest, not the other way round. It’s pretty interesting considering where Poland is in terms of investing in startups.
Leonardo DiCaprio
The Wolf of Wall Street took part in a $55 million funding (in 2015) for the mattress startup Casper alongside Adam Levine, Scooter Braun and Tobey Maguire. He has also invested in:
Mobli ($4 million) – photo-sharing app (supported also by Tobey Maguire, Serena Williams and Lance Armstrong)
Cue – health-monitoring app
Zuli – smart-home product developer
Rubicon Global – recycling solutions company
Nasir ‘Nas’ Jones
This rapper, songwriter and producer is also a general partner at venture capital QueensBridge Venture Partners. He has already made over 40 investments, including:
Change.org – petition platform ($15 million stake)
Coinbase – bitcoin services provider ($25 million stake)
DeviantArt – online art community
SeatGeek – ticket search engine ($35 million stake)
Robinhood – is a stock brokerage that allows customers to buy and sell U.S. listed stocks and ETFs with zero commission ($13 million stake)
Lyft
Meerkat
Casper
The group of famous, US-based investors is quite impressive. Only to mention a few more:
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (Lady Gaga) – invested in Backplane – a social network builder and platform for connecting music and sports fans. Gaga has even her own social networking site, Little Monsters
Madonna – an early investor in Vita Coco ($1,5 million) which garnered funding also from Matthew McConaughey, Demi Moore, and Anthony Kiedis. This coconut water is now sold in 30 countries
Justin Timberlake – invested in My Space, Stipple – photo-sharing service and Miso Media – music education software maker
Robert Downey Jr. – Iron Man investing in tech? Naturally. 😉 He even founded Downey Ventures to make it bigger. One of his investments was Maker Studios – network that creates YouTube content such as Epic Rap Battles in History which was acquired by Disney in 2014 for $500 million
Jay-Z – this hip-hop king acquired Aspiro (music-streaming service) for $56 million and relaunched it as a Tidal (2015)
Magic Johnson former NBA star invested in over a dozen tech companies like Marxent – augmented and virtual reality marketing platform, GingkoTree – online curriculum platform, Are You Human – bot detector and Jopwell – diversity hiring platform
Tyra Banks former supermodel founded Fierce Capital (investment arm of Tyra Banks Company) and put money into female-focused business, like: The Hunt – social shopping site (acquired by Pinterest), The Muse – millennial career site, Locket – lock screen app (acquired by Wish) and Videogram
The situation in Poland looks a bit different, as you may assume. The investment market, especially in startups, is still immature. People, even celebrities, are not ready to invest their private money into tech companies. Of course, it stems from the fact that even the biggest Polish stars do not earn as much as their counterparts in the US.
Robert Lewandowski
There is one exception – Robert Lewandowski – a football player and an undoubted star of polish national team. He is a partner at Protos VC. Some of his investments are:
allani.pl – online shopping mall
twojasuknia.pl – online catalogue of wedding dresses
ladytime.pl – helps to find a good barber, beautician or other professional in the beauty care industry in the closest area
Sporticos – the website presenting the results and statistics of matches in an attractive, info graphic form
lokalnyrolnik.pl – allows ordering organic food directly from farmers
Shoplo – the platform for entrepreneurs who want to set up own online store
Positionly – analytic tool for monitoring and optimizing the position of websites in search engines