Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas
New parents Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas managed to take time off to invest in prebiotic drinks brand Olipop.
The couple joined Camila Cabello, Joe Jonas, Kevin Jonas, Mindy Kaling, Logic, Gwyneth Paltrow and several other investors in the three-year-old brand’s $30 million series B funding round.
The round values Olipop at $200m and is a significant milestone in the California-based brand's journey to usher in the next era of “sparkling tonic” drinks that feature prebiotics for digestive health. The brand anticipates achieving a $100m run-rate by the end of 2022, it said in a statement.
The value of the couple’s investment was not disclosed.
Together, Chopra and Jonas have a combined net worth estimated at between $70m and $98m, ensuring their new child has the best possible head start in life.
The pair’s asset portfolio includes a $20m, seven-bedroom home in Encino, California. They have previously backed companies that promote healthier lifestyles. In September, they took part in a $35m bridge round funding in HumanCo, the holding company behind a range of new health-focused lifestyle products.
In October, they joined the team of producers behind Douglas Lyons’ Broadway comedy Chicken & Biscuits. The play closed in November because of coronavirus-linked challenges.
However, the couple each have sizeable fortunes of their own.
The bulk of 39-year-old Chopra's wealth comes from a 20-year film career, launched on the back of her Miss World 2000 pageant victory. She is thought to be one of the highest-paid female actors in India, earning 150m Indian rupees ($2m) for each Bollywood film, according to GQ India.
Endorsements bring in additional revenue. Chopra has deals with Max Factor and Bvlgari, and has been associated with Pantene, Nirav Modi and Pepsi. A single post to her 74 million Instagram followers reportedly earns Chopra $403,000.
Chopra is also a businesswoman and investor in her own right. In 2015, she launched Purple Pebble Pictures to promote regional Indian cinema. It has since expanded into small-budget Hollywood productions.
Since 2018, the actor has held stakes in Holberton School, a Silicon Valley-based coding education start-up in which she advises on furthering the careers of women in tech, and in Indian food delivery company InnerChef.
Her more recent investments include US-based rental marketplace Apartment List and the avatar company Genies, alongside Cabello and Paris Hilton.
“Ideas are the currency of the present right now, you can be anybody from any field as long as you have an idea, a viable business plan [or] be someone who can find a gap in the market,” she told the Economic Times at a start-up convention last year.
“I would love to be a part of an Indian idea that resonates globally and I'm really looking for that right now and working towards that in a big way.”
Last year, Chopra opened Sona, a modern Indian restaurant in Manhattan with New York chef Hari Nayak, a consultant chef for popular Dubai restaurants Masti, Bombay Bungalow and Moombai & Co. The project is a collaboration with businessman Maneesh Goyal and restaurateur David Rabin.
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Also in 2021, she launched Anomaly Haircare, a line of vegan hair products packaged in bottles made from recycled plastic and sold exclusively at Target in the US.
Jonas, 29, on the other hand, has a net worth estimated at between $30m and $50m. That total includes earnings from his music, both as a member of the Jonas Brothers and as a solo artist, as well as a number of equity investments.
Jonas has invested in six companies, including social food ordering platform Snackpass and thermal dishware brand Ember Technologies, according to Crunchbase. In November, the singer also invested in Nurosene Health, which uses artificial intelligence to help human beings to build better and healthier brains.
Natalie Portman
Vegan Natalie Portman, 40, is walking the talk with an investment in La Vie, a plant-based meat brand.
The Paris-based start-up has just raised €25m ($28.5m) from investment funds and climate-conscious celebrities, including Portman.
La Vie claims its patented vegetable fat gives its products a taste that is indistinguishable from meat, co-founder Nicolas Schweitzer told AFP. The company says its products contain less than a 10th of the saturated fat of real meat and release fewer carbon emissions in production.
La Vie products are already available in some Carrefour stores in France and the company will use the new funds partly to extend its reach in Europe and the UK, as well as to expand its catering range, and for further research and development.
Portman has a net worth estimated at $90m.
The Israeli-born American actor has invested in at least four other companies, according Pitchbook, a company providing data about private capital markets.
Among her other investments are the unicorns Oatly and the women’s telehealth provider Maven Clinic. In 2020, she joined John Legend in a $45m funding round for vegan leather manufacturer MycoWorks.
She also has stakes in two New York companies: agricultural technology start-up Bowery Farming and Ark Biotech, which is building affordable bioreactors to produce cultivated meat on an industrial scale.
Tom Brady
Rumours are already rife about Tom Brady’s next act a week after he retired. But the seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback certainly has enough wealth to kick off a new career in any field of his choosing.
Brady, 44, is now the NFL’s all-time earnings leader with an estimated $475m over the past 22 years, according to calculations by financial information website MarketWatch. That total includes about $293m from direct earnings, as well as another $180m from endorsements, licensing, appearances and memorabilia.
The total puts him ahead of long-time rival Peyton Manning, who left the game with $400m after the 2015 season, according to estimates by Forbes. The magazine ranks Brady among the world’s top 10 highest-paid athletes.
But Brady also has an impressive off-field game. In 2013, he founded TB12 with his “body coach” Alex Guerrero. The brand, which markets supplements and other fitness products aimed at helping athletes improve their performance, made a big e-commerce play last year.
An expansion into new markets in Europe, the Middle East and Asia helped increase online sales 200 per cent year on year.
Brady is also the owner of 199 Productions, a documentary, film and television business named after his NFL draft position, which was 199th overall.
His big play, however, could be digital tokens. Last year, Brady and wife Gisele Bundchen took an equity stake in cryptocurrency exchange FTX as part of a long-term partnership. The deal included roles in a $20m advertisement campaign.
In August, Brady launched Autograph, a platform for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), blockchain-secured digital media files that are bought with cryptocurrency.
In January, Autograph closed a funding round worth $170m, attracting investors interested in a slew of prominent names Brady brought to the platform, including Tiger Woods, Naomi Osaka, Wayne Gretzky, Derek Jeter and Tony Hawk.
A launch collection of five drops in association with digital gaming company DraftKings Marketplace sold out within hours of its launch, and secondary market transactions amounted to more than $1m in gross merchandise volume.
The company hopes to go beyond traditional NFT offerings with physical product drops, live auctions and in-person events.
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Brady also launched a menswear line in January, which offers functional "athleisure" wear. It was created with Jens Grede, who launched Good American denim and Skims shapewear with the Kardashians, and New York designer Dao-Yi Chow.
“I’m in a locker room with a lot of different guys and body types,” Brady told Men’s Health magazine last month. “We want to wear things that we can wear to our training facilities [and] when we come home on the weekends.”
According to one analyst at least, Brady is on his way to a net worth of $1 billion.
“Tom Brady has drastically increased his odds of success by partnering with the right individuals, acquiring premium IP assets, and hacking distribution through one of the largest sports marketing players in the world,” sports business analyst Joseph Pompliano wrote in a Substack newsletter last August.
“If NFTs eventually become the multibillion-dollar market that some experts suggest, don’t be surprised if Brady ends up making more money from Autograph than his entire NFL career.”
And that’s besides the possible comeback Brady may already be considering.
Tina Turner
Swiss citizen Tina Turner has paid $76m for a sprawling weekend retreat on Lake Zurich, according to newspaper Handelszeitung.
The 2.2-hectare country estate, which Turner bought with her husband, music executive Erwin Bach, has 10 historic buildings, a swimming pool, private lakefront space and jetty. Bach is listed as the property’s owner with Stafa, the local municipality.
“We feel very comfortable in Switzerland,” Bach told the New York Post. “Due to the pandemic and its consequences we – like many other Swiss – unfortunately, are refraining from travel.”
For decades, the couple have rented Chateau Algonquin in the nearby town of Kuesnacht. They were unable to buy land in the country until they became naturalised Swiss citizens, a few years ago.
Turner, 82, is believed to have a net worth of $250m, with income from concert tickets, album sales and royalties.
Late last year, she sold the management of her name, image and likeness along with her share of her music rights to BMG for an estimated $50m.
