Ranveer Singh
Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh has invested in Indian beauty start-up Sugar Cosmetics, the company said. Singh’s role involves helping the company to acquire new millennial and Generation Z customers.
The size of Singh's investment was not disclosed.
“I have admired Sugar’s ability to build a tremendous fan following over the years and I am excited to be a part of this journey and help the brand achieve its mission of providing Indian women access to premium and quality make-up products specially formulated for them,” Singh, who is married to actress Deepika Padukone, said.
The agreement comes after the company’s $50 million series D funding round in May. The round drew the participation of several private equity firms, including the Asia fund of L Catterton, A91 Partners, Elevation Capital and India Quotient.
Sugar Cosmetics began operations as a direct-to-consumer brand in 2015. It now clocks annual sales of more than 5.5 billion Indian rupees ($69m), according to the Hindu Business Line newspaper.
Singh’s net worth is estimated at $20m by wealth-tracking website Celebrity Net Worth. However, Indian media estimates that he has a fortune of $44m.
His income comes principally from his movie career and brand endorsements. Aside from about two dozen films, the Cirkus star has been the face a broad range of brands, from Nivea and Colgate, JBL, Xiaomi and Indian clothing brand Manyavar.
The actor recently told Indian entertainment website Bollywood Hungama that he has endorsed 41 brands, including nine that sought out his services during the coronavirus pandemic.
He said he had agreed to the large number of commercials to pay for his new home, a four-level, sea-facing apartment worth 1.2bn rupees in the Mumbai suburb of Bandra.
Earlier this year, the International Advertising Association’s India chapter named the actor as its Brand Endorser of the Year.
“I had to wait a long time for advertisers to consider me,” he said at the awards ceremony in July.
Sia
Australian singer and songwriter Sia Furler is one of several new investors in Bond Pet Foods, a US-based creator of meat proteins through fermentation for pet food applications, the company said.
The oversubscribed series A round raised $17.5 million. Other investors included ADM Ventures, Cavallo Ventures, Genoa Ventures, Lever VC, Thia Ventures and American rock musician Joan Jett.
The capital will be used to expand Bond’s meat protein portfolio and scale up production at a new 1,394-square-metre factory in Colorado. Sia first partnered with Bond earlier this year as an investor and adviser.
“As a devout animal and environmental advocate, I am inspired by Bond Pet Foods' mission and believe their company is the future for sustainably led protein in pet food,” she said in February.
Sia has a net worth of $30m, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Besides her own music, the Chandelier singer has co-written and performed on top-selling songs for artists such as Rihanna, David Guetta and Flo Rida.
Jimmy Donaldson
YouTube creator Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, is the world’s most powerful influencer, according to a new ranking by Forbes magazine.
The influencer, 24, earned $54m last year, the publication said in its list of top creators in 2022.
The bulk of Donaldson’s earnings comes from advertising revenue on his YouTube videos, in which he attempts extreme stunts such as spending 50 hours buried alive, or gives away large sums of money.
With more than 100 million subscribers, he earns a minimum of $3m each month from YouTube advertising revenue, according to estimates by Celebrity Net Worth. The figure does not include in-video brand placement deals.
Donaldson established an additional income stream in 2020 with his virtual restaurant concept, MrBeast Burger. It now delivers from more than 1,000 locations worldwide, including in the UAE.
The creator opened his first burger restaurant last week in New Jersey’s American Dream mall. He estimated that more than 10,000 people were waiting in line to eat at the restaurant, in a subsequent social media post on Twitter.
He later said that the restaurant had broken the record for most burgers sold in a single day, but the claim has yet to be verified by Guinness World Records.
Donaldson has a total net worth of $25m, the site estimates, and reportedly reinvests the majority of his earnings into video production.
He also has his own food company, Feastables, which retails its own brand of chocolate called MrBeast Bars.
Donaldson also has a number of investments and financial partnerships. Through his management company, Night Media, he is involved in technology start-up Backbone, which produces the Backbone One smartphone gaming controller.
Last year, he went into partnership with financial network Creative Juice to set up a fund for content creators, and with mobile banking app Current in a content-creation deal.
John Legend
Twelve-time Grammy winner John Legend has joined a $2.2m seed round in audio-visual evidence management software company JusticeText.
JusticeText is US start-up that aims to produce fairer and more transparent criminal justice outcomes by using text-to-speech machine learning algorithms to transcribe footage of video feeds from police body cameras, interrogation sessions and jail cells to support public defenders and their clients.
The size of Legend’s investment was not disclosed.
The singer and his supermodel wife Chrissy Teigen, who recently announced she was expecting a another baby, have a net worth of $100m, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Legend started his career as a management consultant for the Boston Consulting Group before switching to music.
He has sold more than 10 million albums worldwide and is one of only a few people in the world to achieve “EGOT” status, having won the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards.
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Chrissy Teigen and John Legend — in pictures
Beyond income from music, Legend has invested in a dozen companies, according to funding data platform Pitchbook.
His portfolio includes interactive streaming platform Adventr, organic retailer Thrive Market and Walker & Company Brands, a health and beauty company for people of colour.
In May, the All of Me singer participated in a $12m series A funding round at Neutral Foods, which works with farmers in the US to reduce the carbon footprint of dairy products.
Legend, 43, sold his publishing catalogue and royalty rights to BMG and investment company KKR for an undisclosed amount last year, according to a financial disclosure filing, Bloomberg reported in January.
He earns between $50m and $100m annually from his entertainment work and other investments, according to a 2020 estimate by Variety magazine.
Legend and Teigen have a property portfolio worth $57m, according to the New York Post. It includes homes in Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and three apartments in New York City.
