Indian Actresses Who Have Made Recent Investments In Startups

Any startup which begins with an idea will look to nurture it and develop it into a viable product.  This is followed by lots of testing with focus groups, until a final version of the product is ready.  However, most startups are more often than not bootstrapped and therefore run on a very stringent budget.  Therefore, startups often look to attract an investor for a fresh influx of money and also to scale up.  While there are many venture capital firms which are always on the lookout for exciting startups, Indian movie celebrities are also known to invest in promising startups.  

In this article, we give you a list of leading Indian actresses who have invested in startups recently.

1) Deepika Padukone

Deepika Padukone is one of the most alluring actresses of this generation.  Deepika invested in the popular yoghurt company Epigamia last year.  Her latest investment is into the learning and communication platform Frontrow.  The actress was joined by marquee investors like Lightspeed and Elevation Capital to invest $3.2 million in the startup.  Frontrow’s learning platform focuses on creative arts and sports and that is what attracted Padukone’s investment in this startup.

2) Kajal Aggarwal

Kajal Aggarwal picked up a stake recently in the gaming platform called Okie Gaming.  Kajal will be helping the startup in its promotions, marketing and PR and to attract new users to the platform.  Aggarwal picked up a 15% equity stake for an undisclosed amount of money.

3) Alia Bhatt and Katrina Kaif

Alia Bhatt invested an undisclosed amount in the beauty and cosmetic startup Nykaa.  Earlier in May 2020, Nykaa raised Rs. 100 crore ($13 million) from Steadview Capital, one of its existing investors.  Katrina Kaif also invested in Nykaa and also has her own line of products called Kay Beauty.  

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4) Aishwarya Rai Bacchan

Aishwarya has been ruling the Indian movie industry since a long time, but has taken a step back from the limelight after her marriage to Abhishek Bachchan.  However, the actress has not been idle and has instead redirected her efforts to invest in promising ventures.  Aishwarya Rai Bachchan along with her mother Vrinda became angel investors in 2019.  They invested in Ambee, an environmental intelligence startup, which monitors air quality by gathering data– and have already installed over 100 sensors in Bengaluru.

5) Priyanka Chopra Jonas

Priyanka Chopra invested in the social networking and dating application Bumble in 2018 which was before Bumble had a presence in India.  While Bumble’s parent company MagicLabs was acquired by American based Blackstone, it is not confirmed whether Priyanka Chopra’s stake was bought out.  Priyanka Chopra continues to be involved with Bumble for their branding assignments.

6) Shilpa Shetty

Shilpa Shetty invested Rs. 1.6 crores in the fast moving consumer goods company Mamaearth which produces and sells skincare, haircare and babycare products. 

While this is just the list of actresses who have made recent investments in startups, there are a lot of movie celebrities who have invested in startups across the globe.  The startup ecosystem in India can take heart from the fact that movie stars are willing to align their brand with startups.  The future most definitely holds exciting prospects to see into what startups celebrities will be investing.