10 successful celebrities who invest VC in startups and unicorns

Joe Montana is finest recognized for profitable 4 Tremendous Bowls in the course of the Eighties because the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, however he’s now cementing a brand new legacy as a top-tier investor.

Montana tops the list of celebrity VCs, lately launched by CB Insights, with a whopping 569 offers since 2020, and he’s additionally managed to again 10 unicorn firms throughout that timeframe. Montana is the founder and managing accomplice at Liquid 2 Ventures, a San Francisco-based VC fund. Actor Ashton Kutcher was a distant second place, with 118 offers and 5 unicorns backed, adopted by the Chainsmokers, with 101 offers and three unicorns backed. 

The record ranks 20 celeb buyers utilizing a proprietary mannequin known as a “Mosaic rating,” which ropes in whole dealmaking exercise, the variety of unicorns in an investor’s portfolio, portfolio exits by way of mergers, acquisitions, and IPOs, and extra. Listed here are the highest 10 celeb VCs from CB Insights’ record:

1. Joe Montana
2. Ashton Kutcher
3. Chainsmokers
4. Jay-Z
5. Kevin Durant
6. Mindy Kaling
7. Robert Downey Jr.
8. Will Smith
9. Oprah Winfrey
10. Josh Richards

These are removed from the one celebrities concerned in enterprise capital in recent times. Others embrace Serena Williams, who founded Serena Ventures, Snoop Dogg with Casa Verde Capital, and Steph Curry with SC30 and Penny Jar Capital. Williams and Snoop Dogg are additionally on CB Insights’ record, rating at 17 and 11, respectively.

What’s additionally notable about CB Insights’ record is simply what number of skilled athletes seem on it—six of the highest 20 are or have been skilled athletes. 4 of these are present or former skilled basketball gamers. The NBA, particularly, appears to be a hotbed of VC curiosity, and the league itself even launched its own investment arm, known as NBA Fairness, in 2022. The NFL adopted swimsuit with its personal enterprise arm, known as 32 Equity. 

Even so, VC curiosity appears to be, at this level, largely concentrated amongst NBA gamers, as Montana is the one NFL participant to land amongst CB Insights’ prime 20 this yr. 

Some well-known firms that these celebrities have backed embrace milk-alternative model Oatly (Winfrey and Jay-Z), plant-based meat firm Not possible Meals (Kaling), and grocery startup Misfits Market (Kutcher).