Rapper Nas’s Queensbridge Venture Partners may be the most active celebrity-run VC firm, with 44 investments since February of last year, but it remains to be seen if Nas can translate his creative talents to the startup world.
Out of the 43 companies backed by Queensbridge, 17 backed by Nas’s first fund Emagen Investment Group, and 24 backed by Nas personally, not a single one has exited.
Queensbridge invested in beauty and fashion site BeautyCon today alongside fashion icon Rachel Zoe, but generally the celebrity VC chooses to partner with more established players. Queensbridge invests most often with Andreessen Horowitz, followed by 500 Startups, Maveron and SV Angel.
It seems Nas trusts a16z with his own cash as well – he’s invested individually in 9 companies alongside the Silicon Valley VC. Although this hasn’t yet brought him much success, maybe it will – Andreessen Horowitz has seen 10 exits this year alone.
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