From tennis players Serena Williams and Andy Murray to actors Will Smith and Leonardo DiCaprio, these six famous people are stars in tech startup investment
Having made their millions in the big-name spotlight, a rising number of VIPs – from athletes to actors – are getting smart to the capability of investing in tech new businesses.
While some have been effective in financial planning for quite a while, sending off their own VC firms, others have all the more as of late got in on the tech startup activity placing their superstar profit into energizing new businesses, from fintech to food tech to health tech.
From actors Will Smith, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Ashton Kutcher to athletes Serena Williams and Andy Murray, we profile six of the world’s most productive superstar investors.
1. Will Smith, actor
As the proprietor of the funding company, Visionaries VC, which unites Japanese corporate investors and begins the phase of US new businesses, actor Will Smith has made various cutting-edge investments.
Most of late, in October 2021, Smith partook in a subsidizing round of Circular Segment, a 10-month-old startup creating electric watercraft including a restricted release US$300,000 boat. Big-name rapper Sean ‘Diddy’s’ Brushes Endeavors additionally joined the subsidizing round. And in September 2021, he joined the US$4m subsidizing round for fintech startup Front, an essential investment stage and friend application to Robinhood, Coinbase, and Reserve, that assists guide with bettering investment choices for new investors.
Smith’s other huge investments have remembered for Printify, a main print-on-demand web-based business stage; Landis Advances, a startup that utilizes the exemplary lease to-possess procedure to make house purchasing more open; Titan, an investment management stage; Clubhouse, the now-famous drop-in sound talk application; and Flash Neuro, a company that utilizes neurotech and artificial intelligence to upset the media, clinical and guard ventures.
2. Ashton Kutcher, actor
While Ashton Kutcher is otherwise called a Hollywood actor, the previous biochemical designing alumni and Lenovo item engineer is likewise a chronic financial backer, helping to establish in 2010 a tech-centered VC firm A-Grade Investments. He made early wagers on Uber, Airbnb Spotify, and Skype, transforming a US$30m investment into US$250m, as per Forbes, before establishing investment firm Sound Endeavors in 2015, a firm centered around the beginning phase of development and late-stage new companies.
Kutcher has made many investments in tech new businesses. Using Sound Endeavors, he has put resources into miniature versatility startup Bird, route application Moovit and exchanging application Robinhood. He’s partaken in a US$17m financing round for HR management programming startup Zeal; upheld Berlin insurtech startup Wefox and got together with vocalist Harry Styles and different investors in raising US$1bn for the contemplation and rest application, Quiet, presently a unicorn. Most as of late, Kutcher has given financing to big business programming startup Liquid and Godlike, an email client arrangement, which pulled in a ritzy investment cast including Will Smith.
3. Serena Williams, tennis player
Having sent off San Francisco-based VC firm Serena Adventures in 2014 to back beginning phase organizations, tennis star Serena Williams has become known for putting resources into new companies that help ladies and minority networks. A considerable lot of her investments have been in the tech area with an emphasis on training, wellbeing, and monetary correspondence.
As of late, Williams supported a seed subsidizing round for wellbeing tech company Tinted, a dark-possessed business pointed toward tending to racial wellbeing differences; partook in a financing round for edtech startup Fiveable, a first-of-its-sort social learning stage interfacing occasion drove spaces with direction and assets; and joined Diverse Bonehead Adventures in a US$10m series An investment found for fintech startup Esusu, a dark claimed tech firm that assists lessors with raising their FICO ratings.
She likewise joined actor Will Smith and different investors in raising US$11m ed-tech startup Flockjay, a boot camp startup that retrains jobseekers from contemporary and under-addressed foundations.
4. Robert Downey Jr., actor
The Iron Man actor as of late sent off ESG-centered Impression Alliance Adventures (FCV), a humanitarian venture that unites investors, contributors, and narrators to assist with scaling answers for natural issues. And toward the beginning of 2021, during the World Financial Gathering’s virtual Davos meeting, he revealed two new investment funds as a component of FCV to help new companies create innovations that assist with tending to environmental change.
Among its portfolio organizations are RWDC Ventures, a biotech company making eco-accommodating plastic other options; Cloud Paper, a without tree paper items startup; and Ynsect, a world forerunner in normal bug protein and manure creation.
The actor likewise as of late partook in a US$44m subsidizing round for schedule-based social stage Saturn.
5. Andy Murray, a tennis player
Attempting to restore himself to the expert tennis circuit after injury, English competitor Andy Murray is taking advantage of the tech investment game all things being equal.
Murray has put resources into more than 30 new businesses using a UK-based crowdfunding stage, Seedrs, a move that has landed him a section on a Big name Investments File from money.co.uk. These remember investment for a noble cause tech startup GoodBox, a business that assists good cause with tolerating contactless gifts through card-perusing gift boxes; and in ‘specialist on-demand stage ZoomDoc.
The previous world number one is likewise placing his well-deserved cash into various fintechs. In 2017, Murray supported computerized bank Revolut; the next year, he partook in a US$1.6m subsidizing round for contract loan specialist Landbay; and all the more as of late, upheld receipt funding stage Investly, a commercial center that associates investors to organizations that need transient capital.
6. Leonardo DiCaprio, actor
Known for his generous figuring out ecological problems, the Oscar-winning actor is additionally an eager startup financial backer. Throughout the past 10 years, he has put resources into various new companies, including driving a US$3m subsidizing round for the social versatile photograph and video sharing application Mobli, which does not exist anymore.
And while DiCaprio backs non-tech new companies, especially those in the eco circle, having put resources into elective meat maker Past Meat, all the more as of late, he has directed his concentration toward tech new businesses.
As well as taking part in a US$4.5m Series round of subsidizing for programming startup Qloo, which utilizes man-made intelligence to understand taste and social connections, the actor has supported reusing innovation designer Rubicon, joining Goldman Sachs in a US$50m financing round in 2016, as well as in New York-settled Magnus, an application that charges itself as a Shazam for workmanship. His most recent investment is in Foodtech Dutch company Mosa Meat which produces meat from lab-developed creature cells.
Last year, in a pledge to assist with incorporating LA into a tech improvement force to be reckoned with, DiCaprio made a huge investment in Struck Capital, which supports organizers who influence tech to handle the world’s greatest issues.
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