Turning into a enterprise capitalist has grow to be the most recent standing image in Hollywood.
Everybody today, from Olivia Wilde to Emma Watson, is both launching a enterprise agency or is within the means of backing the subsequent hottest firm. Robinhood, Uber, and Klarna all have some glitzy names on their cap tables, paving the best way for the rise of “Hollywood angels.”
For founders, having celebs on the cap desk can convey lots of buzz to the startup — and bonus factors if the celeb is aware of what they’re doing, too. Listed here are a few of the high celebs investing and what they usually look to spend money on. (This listing can be up to date periodically).
Snoop Dogg
The well-known rapper and persona is a prolific angel investor and can be a founding father of Casa Verde Capital, a agency targeted on hashish investments. As an angel investor, in line with PitchBook, he’s backed corporations comparable to Cameo, Reddit, Klarna, Robinhood, and the fintech MoonPay, alongside different celebs on this listing. He’s made a minimum of 26 investments, in line with PitchBook. The managing associate of Casa Verde Capital is Karan Wadhera and the agency closed a $94 million Fund II in 2020.
Sara and Erin Foster
The Foster sisters are two of Hollywood’s most well-known siblings, greatest identified today because the producers of the Kristen Bell Netflix present “No one Needs This.” They launched a enterprise agency in 2022 seeking to elevate $20 million to again shopper corporations, and the fund has formally closed, their reps confirmed to us. They know the patron space nicely: They have already got a podcast, a clothes line, and a success tv present.
PitchBook exhibits the agency, which they run alongside enterprise associate Phil Schwarz, has written a minimum of six checks, together with into corporations just like the diaper model Kudos (alongside Gwyneth Paltrow) and the luxurious boxed wine firm Juliet.
As angel buyers, the sisters have additionally invested within the alkaline water firm ZenWTR. Sara can be an angel investor within the swimwear firm Summersalt and the ear-piercing startup Rowan.
Kevin Hart
A couple of years in the past, comic Kevin Hart launched a enterprise agency, HartBeat Ventures, alongside Robert Roman, an investor with a background in monetary administration for leisure and sports activities celebrities.
The agency was based round 2021 with the mission to assist minority and underrepresented founders. It obtained its first exterior funding from J.P. Morgan as a part of one of many financial institution’s initiatives to fund extra companies led by ladies and other people of coloration.
The agency has invested in a minimum of 14 corporations, in line with PitchBook, together with the artwork market Masterworks, the 3D printing firm Prepared Participant Me, and Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty lingerie line. Tashi Nakanishi and Walid Samaha are companions on the agency, in line with LinkedIn, whereas Ron Everline serves as vp.
HartBeat Ventures started elevating its Fund I in 2022 with no goal quantity. As of January 2024, it has raised a minimum of $28 million, in line with an SEC submitting from January. An October SEC submitting additionally exhibits that HartBeat is attempting to lift capital for what appears to be an SPV seeking to spend money on Aston Martin’s System One automotive racing group.
Paris Hilton
The famed socialite can be an angel investor, in line with PitchBook. She has made investments via her firm 11:11 Media, of which she is the CEO and co-founder. Her investments have included the crypto firm MoonPay, the biotech firm Colossal Biosciences, the neighborhood occasion platform AfterParty, and the podcast platform Fireplace Chats.
The theme for her appears to be social platforms, biotechnology, and SaaS merchandise that make shopper life simpler. She’s made a minimum of 22 investments, in line with PitchBook, and occurs to be married to Carter Reum, founding father of well-known Los Angeles agency M13 Ventures, which has invested in corporations comparable to ClassPass, Canvas, and Pinterest, in line with its web site.
Ashton Kutcher
Maybe one of the vital famed and notable superstar VCs is Ashton Kutcher. He’s the co-founder of two VC companies, A-Grade and Sound Ventures, each of which he began with Man Oseary. Shortly after launching Sound, Effie Epstein joined as managing associate.
Sound Ventures, based in 2015, seems to again software program corporations and has greater than $1 billion in belongings below administration, in line with PitchBook. It additionally invests out of thematic funds, and final yr launched an AI Progress Thematic fund, which invested in corporations comparable to Hugging Face, OpenAI, Anthropic, and World Labs. He informed the viewers at TechCrunch’s 2024 Disrupt that he’s backing rivals in AI as a result of he thinks there’s room for a number of large AI mannequin corporations. His different notable investments between A-Grade and Sound embrace Affirm, Airbnb, Airtable, Duolingo, and Uber.
Nas
The famed rapper Nas based his agency QueensBridge Enterprise Companions again in 2014. It’s made greater than 130 investments throughout numerous industries and has round $140 million in belongings below administration, in line with PitchBook. Anand Murthy is a associate on the agency. The agency has invested in corporations comparable to the bags model Away (alongside Jay-Z) and the bedding firm Parachute, in line with PitchBook.
As an angel investor, Nas has made greater than 50 investments, in line with PitchBook. He’s backed SeatGeek, Robinhood, Ring, Coinbase, and the fintech Mercury.
Gwyneth Paltrow
The Goop founder has made a minimum of 24 investments as an angel investor, in line with PitchBook. She, alongside Moj Mahdara, can be the co-founder of Kinship Ventures, which invests in shopper and wellness corporations. The agency was seeking to elevate a $75 million VC fund, Axios reported final yr, and has backed the crypto fee firm MoonPay. In keeping with different SEC filings, it appears Kinship Ventures additionally raised what appears to be an SPV to again OpenAI and the bitcoin mining firm TeraWulf.
As an angel investor, Paltrow has invested within the diaper firm Kudos, the hair firm Crown Affair, the sweetness e-commerce market 13 Lune, and the beverage model Olipop, alongside actress Priyanka Chopra, in line with PitchBook. Actress Mindy Kaling, rapper Logic, and the Jonas Brothers, additionally backed Olipop.
Emma Watson
The actress has lower a minimum of two angel investor checks, in line with PitchBook. Investments embrace a minimum of two corporations, together with the biomanufacturing firm FabricNano, and Hertility Well being. Watson is a well-regarded activist, particularly in the case of the surroundings and ladies’s rights. It’s no surprise, then, that her two angel investments are in corporations that search to make product manufacturing extra sustainable and a ladies’s well being platform.
Olivia Wilde
Actress and director Olivia Wilde teamed up with Neil Sirni, who led Roc Nation’s enterprise division Arrive, to launch the enterprise agency Proximity, Bloomberg reported in October. Wilde doesn’t have a PitchBook profile simply but however Bloomberg experiences that her new agency will deal with shopper and enterprise expertise and has already lower a couple of checks, together with into Pendulum Therapeutics.
Investor Jason Mack and artist Santigold, identified for her track “L.E.S. Artistes,” are additionally companions on the agency, in line with Bloomberg. SEC filings present that Proximity is elevating two new SPV funds, together with a $5 million well being fund and one other $10 million fund.
Jay-Z
The music mogul is an angel investor and co-founder of RocNation and of what’s now MarcyPen Capital Companions, an funding agency stemming from the merger of Jay-Z’s Marcy Enterprise Companions with Pendulum Holding’s funding arm Pendulum Alternatives.
Roc Nation has a enterprise arm referred to as Arrive Alternatives Administration, which was as soon as managed by Neil Sirni, the investor now working with Olivia Wilde at Proximity. That enterprise arm has made a minimum of 40 investments, in line with PitchBook, backing corporations comparable to Sweetgreen and Epic Video games.
Earlier than the merger, Marcy Enterprise Companions invested in a number of corporations, comparable to Rihanna’s Fenty x Savage (making Rihanna one of many few Black ladies on the earth to have a unicorn firm) and the web3 firm Spatial Labs. Charlie Hanna and Mason O’Hanlon are listed as buyers at MarcyPen Capital Companions on PitchBook and LinkedIn.
Moreover, as an angel investor, Jay-Z has made some notable investments — a minimum of 27, in line with PitchBook — into corporations like Oatly, Flowhub, Not possible Meals, and the bags firm Away.
