Who says fintech don’t have star power?
Fintech has become the it spot for celebrities to invest their cash and clout. From legendary NBA MVPs to chart-topping rappers and viral TikTok creators, everyone is getting in on the action.
The math is simple for celebrities diving into fintech. Taking an ownership stake offers far more upside than traditional endorsement deals ever could. Plus, as fintech companies battle for attention in an increasingly noisy market, celebrity investors offer a powerful combination of capital and built-in customer base that no traditional investor can match.
Celebrity equity deals also open doors for smaller fintech companies that couldn’t traditionally afford celebrity endorsements. And the icing on the cake? Having skin in the game makes their promotion feel more authentic. After all, wouldn’t you trust a celeb more if you knew they put their own money on the line?
That authenticity factor is key, because there’s evidence consumers have a love-hate thing with celebrity endorsement. One survey found that 60.7% of Americans actually trust brands less when a celebrity is involved, with finance being one of the least trusted industries for celeb endorsements. After all, who does not remember the Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen FTX commercial in which Brady asks all his friends if “they are in” to invest in crypto… a year before FTX turned out to be the largest ponzi scheme in history.
On the flip side, younger fans are more receptive to celebrity-endorsed financial products, with 41% of Gen Z consumers trusting influencer endorsements more than traditional ads. That’s probably why quite a few TikTokers and YouTubers targeting a younger audience made it in our ranking.
A great example of this new breed of fintech celebrity investor is TikTok megastar Charli D’Amelio. At just 16, she joined a $50 million funding round for teen-banking app Step, bringing along her then-136-million-strong army of followers (now 207 million) that happened to be exactly Step’s target audience. Her selfies featuring the Step card translated into hordes of new users, and Charli went on to reinvest in Step through its $100M series C, and even start her own venture firm (444 Capital).
Charli is actually far from the only celebrity running her own VC firm. Just to name a few, Serena Williams (Serena Ventures), Ashton Kutcher (Sound Ventures), Michael Jordan (Courtside Ventures) and The Chainsmokers (Mantis VC) also do.
Celebrities who invest in fintech companies and then promote them have become commonplace, and are not limited to financial products targeting a young audience. Just last week, NFL star Saquon Barkley starred in a Super Bowl TV ad to promote Ramp, a corporate spend management platform valued at 7.65 billions USD he recently invested in.
The celebrity-fintech love affair has actually been a very sport-centered phenomenon so far, with 40% of the investors in our ranking being pro athletes. The rest of the ranking is composed of actors or TV personalities (25%), social media creators (15%), musicians (15%) with the remaining 5% including one author and one motivational speaker. That said, you could argue that all the pro-athletes in our ranking are social media influencers, since in most cases, they make more money from monetizing their influence than from their pro-athletes salary.
Given the prevalence of pro athletes on our list, we were surprised that no highly paid European soccer players made the cut. In fact, a whopping 72.5% of our celebrity fintech investors in our ranking are from the United States, with Canada in second place (12.5%), and the United Kingdom (5%) in third place.
How We Ranked ’Em
Before we dive into who made our top 40 list, here’s how we ranked this star-studded lineup. We started by compiling over 100 celebrity fintech investors through press coverage and private deal databases.
Next, we removed anyone who did not invest in at least two fintech companies and those whose fintech investments had gone bust at a rate of 50% or more (yep, that’s why Tom Brady did not make the list). Finally, we tallied their total social media followings (across Instagram, X, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook & TikTok), ranked them by follower count and kept only the top 40. Yes, it’s an imperfect yardstick for influence, but it’s a reliably quantifiable one. The result? A colourful ranking highlighting the biggest celebrity power players in fintech.
1. Jimmy Donaldson
This Gen Z American influencer is practically the god of YouTube and patron saint to obnoxious pre-teens everywhere. With over 500 million social media followers and $700 million in annual income, MrBeast can turn any product into gold just by mentioning it to his audience. He takes two different approaches to business. While he promotes some fintech companies without taking equity (like when he pitched the personal finance app MoneyLion in Amazon Prime’s Beast Games), he’s also eager to invest in promising fintech startups. MrBeast invested in Current, a neobank targeting teens and young adults, and ventured into crypto with investments in NFT platform Refinable (acquired by Artifact Labs) and crypto wallet company Bitsky (acquired by Phantom). Like MrBeast would conclude, it all comes down to this: while he is mostly known for his viral YouTube stunts and his Feastable chocolate bars, his true talent lies in turning teenage attention into serious business.
2. Will Smith
From “West Philidelphia, born and raised”, to a Hollywood legend, the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is gettin’ jiggy with fintech. Known for box office hits like Men in Black and Independence Day, Big Willie has invested in 13 fintech ventures either directly or through Dreamers VC, the venture firm he co-founded with Japanese soccer superstar Keisuke Honda (#38 in this ranking). Will Smith’s portfolio includes many B2B fintechs, including business bank account provider Mercury and financial forecasts software Runaway. Smith also got banking and credit-building covered with Karat, Step and Brigit, blockchain with Dapper Labs and Ethos, real estate with Sundae and Withco and investing with Otis (although it was acquired by Public). Boasting over 270 million social media followers, four Grammys, and one Oscar, Will’s portfolio slaps harder than the 2022 Oscars.
3. Aubrey Drake Graham
From Degrassi teen star to rap royalty, Drake is best known for dominating the music charts and stacking five Grammys. This Canadian icon wields incredible influence with 144 million Instagram followers and another 120 million across YouTube, X, and Facebook. Out of the 16 venture investments he made so far, two are fintech companies: Wealthsimple, Canada’s most popular investing app, and MoonPay, a Miami-based cryptocurrency platform. Drake might’ve started from the bottom, but his portfolio is definitely here.
4. Charli D’Amelio
Millennial teenagers performed choreographed dances in musty gyms at school talent shows. Gen Z? They said “hold my Prime,” posted their dance moves online, and woke up with over 207 million followers and a $45 million net worth. No one did it better than Charli D’Amelio, America’s favourite dancing queen and the first TikTok creator to hit 100 million followers. Now she’s securing the bag with fintech investments in cypto-exchange Gemini, banking app Step and licensing platform SmarterLicense. She even set-up 444 Capital, a $25M fund, with with her sister and parents, who also happened to have accumulated millions of followers on TikTok. When she’s not dancing on Broadway, Charli is busting moves in the boardroom. Millennials really walked so Gen Z could Renegade their way to the top.
5. Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr.
Snoop Dogg can drop it like it’s hot in more ways than one. Famous for hits like Gin and Juice and movie cameos in Starsky & Hutch and Training Day, this American rap legend is also a serious fintech investor. He’s backed major players like crypto payment platform MoonPay, Buy Now Pay Later lender Klarna, NFT publisher Yuga Labs (the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs), web3 platform Syndicate, and music NFT marketplace Sound. While we don’t doubt the former gang member got paid handsomely for starring in Klarna’s “Get Smoooth” TV ad campaign back in 2019, his secondary shares purchase is about to pay even more. Given the company’s $2.5 billion valuation when the deal occurred, we’re talking about a 600% return in 6 years, assuming Klarna’s rumoured $15 billion valuation hold water in April, when the fintech is set to IPO. With over 194 million combined social media followers, a $160 million net worth, 17 Grammys, and an epic friendship with domestic goddess Martha Stewart, it’s kinda smart bein’ Snoop D-O-double-G.
6. Shawn Mendes
Once a Vine heartthrob, this Canadian pop star is stacking more than Junos and Grammys. Conquering the charts with smash hits like Stitches and Seniorita, Shawn has set his sights on fintech. With a penchant for blockchain, he’s backed MoonPay, Unblocked, and Dapper Labs. Boasting 152 million followers across social media, this northern songbird has quietly invested in nine fintechs. When he’s not busy building his portfolio, you’ll find him building a messy love triangle with Camila Cabello and Sabrina Carpenter. Love life? Complicated. Portfolio? Less complicated.
7. Gal Gadot
Meet the Israeli-born superstar who is every bit Wonder Woman in real life as she is on screen. Famous for her iconic roles in Fast and Furious and the DC Universe, Gal tossed her Lasso of Truth into the fintech space. Investing in crypto ventures like MoonPay, a crypto trading platform, and AdaSwap, a decentralized exchange on the Cardano network, she’s willing to fight for the future of finance. With 133 million social media fans hanging on her every move, Gal proves that not all heroes wear capes.
8. Ryan Reynolds
Canada’s snarkiest export is best known for reinventing himself as Marvel’s king of chaos. Long before his iconic Deadpool character, Ryan shot to stardom for his onscreen antics in movies like Van Wilder, Waiting, and The Proposal. Beyond the cutting quips, he’s also the savvy entrepreneur behind Mint Mobile and Aviation Gin. But when he’s not publicly trolling Blake Lively and Peleton, he’s backing major fintech platforms like Wealthsimple and Nuvei. Investing is fun, but turning brands into viral sensations is his love language. Ryan funds companies that he typically promotes through viral posts and low-cost videos produced by his ironically named firm Maximum Effort, like he did for Mint Mobile (that T-Mobile acquired for $1.35 billion) and Nuvei (that went private thanks to a $6.3 billion deal). Given Nuvei’s valuation of nearly $6 billion when Ryan first invested, it’s safe to say he did not make much money on this one. With over 100 million social media followers, Ryan’s success is best served with sarcasm and a katana.
9. Robert Downey Jr
His Stark wit and stunning performance as Iron Man helped launch the Marvel Cinematic Universe into a $30.8 billion serial box office hitter. Off-screen, this American actor has swapped his red suit for a heart of green, investing in the climate-conscious digital bank, Aspiration, that funds tree planting with every card swipe. He’s also thrown money into Aura, an AI-powered identity theft protection service, and Ethos, an online life insurance provider. Now that he’s conquered one of the most iconic career comebacks in Hollywood, he’s channelling that energy into fintech, no Arc Reactor required.
10. Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio launched himself from a 90s heartthrob to king of the world, mesmerizing movie-goers in films like Titanic, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Revenant (to name a few). He’s also infamous as one of Hollywood’s most Oscar-snubbed stars, racking up seven nominations and one win in 2016 (finally!). Behind the scenes, Leo has backed two fintech ventures. Aspiration, a climate friendly neobank, and Magnus, a “Shazam for art” app that identifies artists, artworks and art prices. If only Magnus could identify what Rose did with all that door space. Here’s hoping Leo’s fintech portfolio is actually unsinkable.
This article first appeared on Global Fintech Insider,
Read the whole article on Global Fintech Insider to find out also rank 11 to 40.
Featured image credit: celebrites image from wikipedia
