From Ashton Kutcher to Justin Bieber, a number of celebrities have put their money - and sometimes their personal brands - into tech investments like Fab, Flipboard and Mobli. And it's not just celebrities who invest, but also their agents and managers - people like Lady Gaga's manager, Troy Carter.
The celebrity investor trend is relatively nascent, but has caught the attention of Hollywood talent and sports agency Creative Artists Agency, which is said to be developing a new 20M venture capital fund $, as well as former Mashable editor Ben Parr, who is working on the Hollywood connected # DominateFund.
Por supuesto, no todo el mundo es tan optimista en la conexión estrella-startup. Curiosamente, sin embargo, GRP Partners se ha asociado con Rachel Zoe en dos ofertas – NuORDER y dailyLook.
Así después que la empresa de comunicación «Mass Appeal», con sede en Brooklyn, captara fondos de los artistas de hip-hop Nas y Pusha T, www.cbinsights.com ha querido profundizar en la tendencia y ver qué celebridades (o sus vehículos de inversión) han apoyado la mayor cantidad de startups tecnológicas, así como los Venture capital que han coinvertido más frecuentemente con famosos.
Actors, the most active guild
First, celebrities as we have defined them include actors, singers, rappers, etc. themselves, as well as those in their inner circle. As will be seen below, actors represent the largest number of celebrity investors with at least 11 actors owning stakes in private tech companies. Music artists followed closely behind with at least 10 singers and 8 rappers involved in tech funding since 2007.
“In Spain, one group that could be in a position to finance promising companies is footballers. Until now, they have sought out low-risk assets, particularly in the property sector. The reason is their short professional careers, which lead them to take on little risk,” says Diego Gutierrez (ABRA INVEST) specialist in corporate finance for SMEs.
Internet and mobile, the most important sectors
Most celebrity high-tech investments over the past five years have gone to internet companies, but celebrities have also backed at least 28 mobile startups. Leonardo DiCaprio, for example, participated in a round in the photo-sharing app Mobli while seed investors in BlackJET, a fractional jet sharing company with a mobile app, included Ashton Kutcher, Jay-Z's Roc Nation and Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment.
Celebrities opt for A-grade investments
The following list shows the most active celebrities investing in technology since 2007. The top 10 is led by A-Grade Investments, the investment vehicle headed by Kutcher, Guy Oseary and Ron Burkle and is followed by Troy Carter and Justin Timberlake, who round out the top 3. Eight of the top 10 celebrity tech investors concentrate on seed/angel and Series A level early stage investments. Frequent celebrity co-investors include SV Angel, Menlo Ventures and CrunchFund.
“It would be interesting to find out how these celebrities went about the investment process when choosing their investments. What might have motivated them? Were these financial decisions, or were they driven more by their personal tastes or interests? It stands to reason that the celebrities would have worked with expert fund managers to analyse the investments and co-invested with them,” says Diego Gutierrez.