Talk of angel investors. It is now angels in the form of Bollywood stars who have taken to investing in startups.
The list includes celebs like Madhuri Dixit, Shilpa Shetty, Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, and Jacqueline Fernandez. Kajal Aggarwal is the latest to join the illustrious club by investing an 15% stake in Okie Gaming.
Okie Gaming is a real-money gaming platform offering games like Smart Number Quiz, Fantasy Cricket, and others. Users can play games on payment of Rs 10 to Rs 25 and win up to Rs 5000. Kajal Aggarwal is a big star down south and starred in hits like Singham, Magadheera, and Special 26.
Kareena Kapoor invested in an Ahmedabad based startup business MyBageecha through Instagram. Instagram runs a Love Runs in-depth Campaign and partnered with Kareena to promote myBageecha, a gardening business in Ahmedabad. Kareena loves gardening and spent the lockdown period teaching her son Taimur something about gardening. Love Runs Deep is about Instagram being the platform for partnership between people, celebrities, influencers, and brands. They assume that the celebrity association can boost small business brands.
Katrina Kaif has chosen to play fairy godmother to omnichannel lifestyle retailer Nykaa. Katrina runs her beauty brand Kay Beauty in association with Nykaa, so the investment was a natural progression. Katrina says she admires Falguni Nayar’s vision and was impressed by the team’s dedication.
Alia Bhatt, too is an investor in Nykaa, apart from being a stakeholder in startup StyleCracker and the brand ambassador for MakeMyTrip.
Suniel Shetty is known for his fitness and restaurants. He has naturally gone in for investment in health tech startup Vieroots. His recent investment is in another Edtech startup, Sai Estate Management, and Skills Institute. The institute’s value rocketed to $ 80 million after his involvement.
Not to be left behind, the inimitable Deepika Padukone has chosen to invest in startup FrontRow, a learning and community platform.
It is not just film stars; even cricketers are choosing to invest in startups. Yuvraj Singh invested in Wellversed, and Shikhar Dhawan funded SARVA this year.
2019 was a landmark year for Indian startups, with over $10 billion invested during that period. Q3 of 2020 shows an investment of $ 3.6 billion in the Indian startup market for 3 months. It is no surprise that Bollywood celebs should want a piece of this action.
