Previously, having achieved popularity and million-dollar contracts, celebrities began to spend their money on luxury goods. Well, or buy football clubs. However, today, with the development of the technology industry, celebrities are becoming more and more interested in investing in cutting-edge technology.
Data from the Statista website says that as of November 2021, there were 10,755 FinTech startups in America, making this region the most significant number of FinTech startups in the world.
Increasingly, world stars are investing their millions by investing in the latest developments. It has become a prestigious business but also often brings good profits.
Here are five celebrities who invested in technology and were satisfied.
Will Smith
Will Smith loves to invest in new startups. In 2019, he hosted an on-stage elevator presentation contest at the Tech Crunch Disrupt event. The actor is also Dreamers VC’s co-founder, “a venture capital fund that brings together high-profile investors with early-stage American companies.”
Smith also invested in OURA through the Dreamers VC, an accessory to rival the Apple Watch and Fitbit that gets health information from the arteries in your fingers in a minimalist ring.
Katy Perry
Robert Downey Jr.
The actor most recently founded the FootPrint Coalition, which combines democratic venture capital investment with storytelling to encourage technology investment that will promote sustainability and reduce carbon emissions. The rolling venture fund portfolio includes six companies, including RWDC, a leading PHA manufacturer, an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic designed to biodegrade in marine environments without breaking down into microplastics.
Speaking to Forbes ahead of the FootPrint Coalition Ventures (FCV) official announcement, Downey emphasized that the funds represent an essential continuation of the work of the FootPrint Coalition, a philanthropic project he debuted in 2019 to bring together investors, donors, and storytellers to help scale solutions to pressing environmental issues.
Leonardo DiCaprio
DiCaprio directs most of his investments to tech startups, especially those committed to environmentally sustainable practices. DiCaprio funded e-commerce mattress company Casper, in the Series B funding round. Most recently, he invested in Rubicon, a waste management software platform. He also invested in MindMaze, a Swiss virtual reality startup that received unicorn status in 2016.
Serena Williams
The famed tennis player has become known for investing in startups that support women and minority communities. Many of her investments have been in the technology sector, focusing on education, healthcare, and financial equity.
Williams recently backed a seed funding round for medical technology company HUED, a black-owned business to close racial health disparities.
Join celebrities investing in startups
You will say, of course, it is easy for them because these stars operate with millions of investments. However, to invest in technology startups, you do not need be rich and famous.
Today, investing in exciting and promising projects is available to everyone.
The continued emergence of online co-investment platforms and listings of top software development companies that are safe to invest in have provided a combination that allows investors of all kinds to participate as startup investors on any budget. So which startup will you choose?
Published by HOLR Magazine.
Author’s bio: Anastasiia Lastovetska is a technology writer at MLSDev, a software development company that builds web & mobile app solutions from scratch. She researches the area of technology to create great content about app development, UX/UI design, tech & business consulting.