Becoming a enterprise capitalist has develop into the most recent standing image in Hollywood.
Everyone 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 way in which for the rise of “Hollywood angels.”
For founders, having celebs on the cap desk can deliver plenty of buzz to the startup — and bonus factors if the celeb is aware of what they’re doing, too. Here are a number of the prime celebs investing and what they sometimes look to put money into. (This checklist will likely be up to date periodically).
Snoop Dogg
The well-known rapper and persona is a prolific angel investor and can also be a founding father of Casa Verde Capital, a agency targeted on hashish investments. As an angel investor, in keeping with PitchBook, he’s backed corporations akin to Cameo, Reddit, Klarna, Robinhood, and the fintech MoonPay, alongside different celebs on this checklist. He’s made at the least 26 investments, in keeping with PitchBook. The managing accomplice 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 recognized today because the producers of the Kristen Bell Netflix present “Nobody Wants This.” They launched a enterprise agency in 2022 seeking to increase $20 million to again shopper corporations, and the fund has formally closed, their reps confirmed to us. They know the patron space effectively: They have already got a podcast, a clothes line, and successful tv present.
PitchBook reveals the agency, which they run alongside enterprise accomplice Phil Schwarz, has written at the least six checks, together with into corporations just like the diaper model Kudos (alongside Gwyneth Paltrow) and the posh boxed wine firm Juliet.
As angel buyers, the sisters have additionally invested within the alkaline water firm ZenWTR. Sara can also be an angel investor within the swimwear firm Summersalt and the ear-piercing startup Rowan.
Kevin Hart
A number 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 help minority and underrepresented founders. It obtained its first outdoors funding from J.P. Morgan as a part of one of many financial institution’s initiatives to fund extra companies led by ladies and folks of shade.
The agency has invested in at the least 14 corporations, in keeping with PitchBook, together with the artwork market Masterworks, the 3D printing firm Ready Player Me, and Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty lingerie line. Tashi Nakanishi and Walid Samaha are companions on the agency, in keeping with LinkedIn, whereas Ron Everline serves as vice chairman.
HartBeat Ventures started elevating its Fund I in 2022 with no goal quantity. As of January 2024, it has raised at the least $28 million, in keeping with an SEC submitting from January. An October SEC submitting additionally reveals that HartBeat is making an attempt to boost capital for what appears to be an SPV seeking to put money into Aston Martin’s Formula One automotive racing crew.
Paris Hilton
The famed socialite can also be an angel investor, in keeping 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 Fireside Chats.
The theme for her appears to be social platforms, biotechnology, and Cloud Software merchandise that make shopper life simpler. She’s made at the least 22 investments, in keeping 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 akin to ClassPass, Canvas, and Pinterest, in keeping with its web site.
Ashton Kutcher
Perhaps probably the most famed and notable superstar VCs is Ashton Kutcher. He is the co-founder of two VC companies, A-Grade and Sound Ventures, each of which he began with Guy Oseary. Shortly after launching Sound, Effie Epstein joined as managing accomplice.
Sound Ventures, based in 2015, seems to be to again software program corporations and has greater than $1 billion in belongings beneath administration, in keeping with PitchBook. It additionally invests out of thematic funds, and final yr launched an AI Growth Thematic fund, which invested in corporations akin 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 huge 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 Venture Partners again in 2014. It’s made greater than 130 investments throughout numerous industries and has round $140 million in belongings beneath administration, in keeping with PitchBook. Anand Murthy is a accomplice on the agency. The agency has invested in corporations akin to the baggage model Away (alongside Jay-Z) and the bedding firm Parachute, in keeping with PitchBook.
As an angel investor, Nas has made greater than 50 investments, in keeping with PitchBook. He’s backed SeatGeek, Robinhood, Ring, Coinbase, and the fintech Mercury.
Gwyneth Paltrow
The Goop founder has made at the least 24 investments as an angel investor, in keeping with PitchBook. She, alongside Moj Mahdara, can also be the co-founder of Kinship Ventures, which invests in shopper and wellness corporations. The agency was seeking to increase a $75 million VC fund, Axios reported final yr, and has backed the crypto fee firm MoonPay. According to 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 wonder e-commerce market Thirteen Lune, and the beverage model Olipop, alongside actress Priyanka Chopra, in keeping with PitchBook. Actress Mindy Kaling, rapper Logic, and the Jonas Brothers, additionally backed Olipop.
Emma Watson
The actress has reduce at the least two angel investor checks, in keeping with PitchBook. Investments embrace at the least two corporations, together with the biomanufacturing firm FabricNano, and Hertility Health. Watson is a well-regarded activist, particularly in the case of the surroundings and ladies’s rights. It’s no marvel, 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 studies that her new agency will deal with shopper and enterprise know-how and has already reduce a couple of checks, together with into Pendulum Therapeutics.
Investor Jason Mack and artist Santigold, recognized for her music “L.E.S. Artistes,” are additionally companions on the agency, in keeping 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 Partners, an funding agency stemming from the merger of Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners with Pendulum Holding’s funding arm Pendulum Opportunities.
Roc Nation has a enterprise arm known as Arrive Opportunities Management, which was as soon as managed by Neil Sirni, the investor now working with Olivia Wilde at Proximity. That enterprise arm has made at the least 40 investments, in keeping with PitchBook, backing corporations akin to Sweetgreen and Epic Games.
Before the merger, Marcy Venture Partners invested in a number of corporations, akin 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 Partners on PitchBook and LinkedIn.
Furthermore, as an angel investor, Jay-Z has made some notable investments — at the least 27, in keeping with PitchBook — into corporations like Oatly, Flowhub, Impossible Foods, and the baggage firm Away.
