While once upon a time the coolest celebrities showed off the status and fortune by buying expensive shoes or large houses, nowadays they have a much geekier way of showing off their wealth—investment. Celebrities these days are all over technology, as they tweet, Facebook share and Instagram their way to further fame. So it makes sense therefore that many tech-savvy young celebrities are investing their money into ventures they know in an attempt to increase their wealth. In no particular order, here of five of the top celebrity tech investors who have been making waves in the tech industry for the past few years.
Ashton Kutcher
Ashton Kutcher is in many ways a well-known and well-respected venture capitalist in the tech industry, and has somewhat of a midas touch when it comes to his technology investments. Kutcher is most famous for investing in VoIP service Skype, who as an early investor must have made a killing when the service was sold to Microsoft for $8.5 billion. Yet Skype is just one of Kutcher’s main tech investments: he has also placed his money in successful forays such as location checking-in app FourSquare and social magazine Flipboard. Kutcher is a techie at heart, and has a well-known social media presence that shows he has a good understanding of the business.
Justin Timberlake
Justin must have been taking notes when he played Napster founder Sean Parker in The Social Network, because in recent years he himself has shown a big interest in investing in tech firms. He has played a lead role in reinvigorating ailing social network Myspace, using his power as a major investor in the company to direct ‘new Myspace’ to continued success overseas. He also invested in photo-sharing start-up Stipple, which allows people to label pictures online.
Lady Gaga
Mother Monster has spoken frequently and at length about her belief in the importance of social networking, and it is good to see that Gaga put her money where her mouth is and invested in former Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s new social media startup Backplane, a platform for allowing celebrities and their fans to converse easily. LittleMonsters.com has been a successful venture for Backplane, and while the business slowly develops it has had much success with gaining further venture capital—indicating that industry movers and shakers have belief in its bright future.
Kim Kardashian
Kim is from a business-orientated family, so it is no wonder that she decided to dip her feet in the successful online technology pool. Her most notable investment so far has been the online shop storeShoedazzle, which she helped found in 2009. Not only has Shoedazzle expanded significantly since its inception, but also it has managed to wrangle in a whole new series of funding for further expansion.
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio may be a Hollywood leader, but with his tech investments he has been somewhat of a follower. Alongside celebrities like actor Toby Maguire and cyclist Lance Armstrong, Leo has been a major investor in media sharing platform Mobli. Leo also has a role in advising the company, perhaps giving him a chance to flex his business muscles.
This is a guest post by Sam, who is a freelance writer and an avid blogger. She loves writing about everyday interests and a huge fan of technology. Right now she is writing articles in association with CLEARwire internet.
