From film to sport, celebrities invest in women’s health

Well-being and activism. These seem to be the two directions on which the investment choices of celebrities are moving. From Serena Williams to Gwyneth Paltrow, women who have been successful in their star careers now run serious investment companies, support early-stage start-ups and build long-term portfolios just like their colleagues Ashton Kutcher, Jay-Z, Will Smith, Robert Downey Jr. and Leonardo DiCaprio. Actresses, champions, singers are increasingly active in the management of their portfolios and often focus on companies in the healthcare sector, which operate on services and products for women, thus combining their search for returns with their social commitment. Megan Rapinoe, former footballer and long-time captain of the world champion US national team, summed it up well: ‘In my personal financial portfolio, my advisor and his company have a strong commitment to impact investing,’ Rapinoe told Forbes, adding: ‘Of course we aim to generate returns and be profitable, but we also want to invest in companies that can be disruptive and point in a new direction. In his case, the choice was to invest in the series B round of the mental health platform Real, which raised 37 million in an operation led by Owl Ventures and also participated in by Gwenyt Paltrow and Eric Kendricks.

Serena Williams’ choices

The real star of investment in the sector, however, is Serena Williams. The former tennis champion founded her own venture capital fund, Serena Venture, through which she has invested in 67 companies, of which eight have become unicorns, one has gone public and nine have been acquired by other corporations or funds. In the sector, the multi-award winning athlete has chosen weight loss platform Noom, digital maternal health platform Mahmee, women’s health product manufacturer Lola, pelvic floor care company Every Mother, menopause supplement company Wile, home cervical cancer screening company Teal Health and virtual couples therapy platform Ours.

Investments in the reproductive cycle

Maven Clinic, the largest virtual clinic for women’s and family health, which was valued at $1.7 billion in its latest $125 million Series F round of financing, has been trusted by TV host Oprah Winfrey, actress and writer Mindy Kaling, and actress and producer Reese Witherspoon. Cameron Diaz, along with Gwyneth Paltrow and Drew Barrymore, is an angel investor in Evernow, a telehealth company focused on perimenopause and menopause. Also involved in telehealth is Hims & Hers, whose investors include Jennifer Lopez, while it aims to redefine women’s health care through artificial intelligence Midi, a company that closed a 50 million Series C funding round last October and whose investors include Meghan Markle. Fertility also seems to be one of the most recurring themes: Emma Watson has invested in the UK-based Hertility, which provides hormone and fertility tests at home, and Gwyneth Paltrow in the KindBody fertility clinic.

More than an investor is actress Halle Berry in Pendulum Therapeutics, the biotech company pioneering the new frontier of metabolic health with products targeting the microbiome. Berry, in fact, took on the role of chief communications officer after becoming a shareholder in the company. What convinced her was the fact that she had tried the products herself.