From Ashton Kutcher to Jay-Z, these 12 celebrities are the most active of the 'Hollywood angels' making big investments in Silicon Valley
- These 12 actors, musicians and sports stars may have reaped millions using their creative and athletic talents, but they have also won big from bets on startups.
- From Ashton Kutcher's big early bet on Uber, to Will Smith's on-the-spot investment into a small startup that impressed him with a pitch, these celebrities are establishing themselves as mainstays in Silicon Valley.
- Business Insider took a look at Crunchbase data to rank the top 12 celebrities by the number of startup investment rounds in which they've participated.
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The Silicon Valley tech boom has led to the rise of the so-called "Hollywood angels," as musicians, actors, and athletes look to score big by becoming startup investors.
Some of these celebrities have already proved their business acumen: Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher is famous for his early bets on companies like Uber, Airbnb, and Spotify, while Jay-Z, Katy Perry, and Serena Williams famously joined forces to invest in meat-replacement startup Impossible Foods, now valued in the billions of dollars.
Business Insider took a look at the actors, musicians and sports stars who are most actively-involved in the US tech funding scene, using data from Crunchbase.
While it's not always clear how much cash each individual celebrity has sunk into startups, given that they're usually participating in much larger funding rounds, we do know how often they've had their names attached to a deal. We've ranked these celebs by the number of funding events they've participated in.
We've also drawn a distinction, where possible, between personal investments by a celebrity and those made by a VC firm or fund with which they're associated. In some cases, the different is minimal: Serena Williams is the sole founder and principal of her fund, Serena Ventures. But others, like U2 frontman Bono, are only part-owners of the fund, and have limited participation, making the distinction an important one.
Here are Silicon Valley's most-active celebrity investors: