Nas Investment In Coinbase Could Make Him $100 Million
Nas is looking at a major payday from his investment into cryptocurrency currency exchange platform Coinbase.
His investment group, QueensBridge Venture Partners, jumped on a Series B investment for Coinbase back in 2013, when the company raised $25 million. Back then, it was worth roughly $143 million. Eight years later, Coinbase is scheduled to go public and be listed on NASDAQ Wednesday , which could potentially bring its value to $100 billion.
QueensBridge, which has invested in companies like Robinhood, Lyft, and Dropbox, could get from $34.76 million to $173.8 million based on a formula of $350 per share .
If Coinbase takes things further and shares trade at DA Davidson investment bank, the price could go up to $440, bringing QueensBridge payout to $43.7 million to $218.5 million.
An insider said, according to Coindesk, that Nas is good friends with Ben Horowitz, who is a co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, a key company that invested in Coinbase. Theres speculation that Horowitz informed Nas that investing in Coinbase would be beneficial for him.
QueensBridge has mastered investing in companies in the startup stages. It earned $40 million when Amazon bought doorbell and security company Ring in 2018.
What are your thoughts on Nass potential payday? Comment and let us know.
Is Kevin Durant With Roc Nation
Another star free agent, Kevin Durant, signed with Roc Nation in 2013. Since then, he has become to be represented solely by his agent and business partner Rich Kleiman. Kleiman helped launch Roc Nation, starting on the music side before transitioning to sports and working with Durant.
Is Lebron A Billionaire
James has earned more than $1 billion during his 18-year career, with nearly $400 million in salary and more than $600 million in off-the-court earnings, but that doesnt make him a billionaire. After accounting for taxes, spending and investment returns, Forbes estimates James net worth to be about $850 million.
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Take A Look At Some Of Their Other Investments
Tilt $400 million valuation
Robinhood Valued at $1.3 billion
Genius has raised a total of $77.7M in funding over 6 rounds.
Coinbase, Fancy Prism Skylabs, Zest Finance, Stance, mParticle, Proven, Earbits, Trendabl, Crowdtilt, 21E6, Balanced, MeCommerce, DeviantArt, 500 Startups, Push IO, Swarm Mobile, Glio, Boosted Boards, MadeFire, Fashion GPS, Washio, SellSimple, Hotelzilla, Signal Ventures, Clean Plates, BOXC, MediaSpike, CapLinked, and SendHub.
QBVP has 37 exits, including Ring, Pill Pack and Houseparty.
Dropbox $10 billion valuation
Casper $550 million valuation
Lyft $5.5 billion valuation
Nas enjoys being a silent partner. When people discuss famous hip-hop entrepreneurs, its not often that Nas is mentioned in the conversation. But clearly, his savvy investment style has paid out quite favorably for the legendary lyricist causing some circles to say Nas might be the next Black billionaire.
Nas would beat any artist in a tech investment portfolio Verzuz, says Nas manager Anthony Saleh
Here’s Who Invested In Lyft’s $600 Million Funding Round
Ride-hailing services company Lyft attracted a number of new investors in its latest round of fundraising, including famed private equity firm KKR kkr-co-l-p , AllianceBernstein awf , Baillie Gifford, and Canadas Public Sector Pension Investment Board.
Existing investors Rakuten rkunf and Janus Capital jns returned to participate in the round that closed at $600 million in new capital with a $7.5 billion post-money valuation. Fortune previously reported the funding round was more than $500 million.
Lyft is fundamentally changing the way people think about car ownership and transportation, George Roberts, co-founder and co-CEO of KKR said in a statement. With ridesharing increasingly in high demand, we are proud to partner with Lyft for their differentiated customer-centric culture, impressive growth strategy and exceptional management team, and to work together to change transportation for the better for both passengers and drivers.
For more on Lyft, watch Fortunes video:
Lyft worked for months to raise capital in its bid to aggressively expand in order to compete with Uber. The company sought investors, and one has to imagine, took advantage of Ubers months-long streak of bad publicity when making its pitch. While the two companies share a similar business model, Lyft has consistently presented itself as a friendlier version of the Travis Kalanick-helmed company.
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A Surprise Winner From Coinbases Direct Listing Rapper Nas
Rapper Nas founded QueensBridge Venture Partners in 2013.
Franco Vogt/The Forbes Collection
Rapper Nasir Jones, known better as Nas, has emerged as an unlikely winner in todays Coinbase IPO. An early investor in the company, the rappers stake is worth at least $40 million. The cryptocurrency exchange was valued at $99.6 billion today when trading began and reached a valuation of over $100 billion in minutes.
Jones QueensBridge Venture Partners was an early backer of Coinbase, joining the companys $25 million Series B round in 2013. His firm invested between $100,000 and $500,000, its typical amount. That round valued the company at about $150 million according to Pitchbookless than 1% of its value today.
At the time of the investment, shares of Coinbases Series B were worth $1.00676, meaning Jones firm would have between 99,239 and 496,642 shares, according to CoinDesk. At the share price of $415 that the stock reached minutes after trading began, those shares were worth between $41.2 million and $206 million.
Long crypto forever…. in sickness & in health, Jones tweeted this morning, just hours before Coinbase started trading.
Lyft’s Big Money Investors
Lyft is clearly the smaller of the two companies, operating in 65 cities in the United States only, while Uber covers 250 cities worldwide. Marc Andreessen, founder of Netscape, has a fractious history of public feuds with Icahn, but he poured $60 million into Lyft through his firm Andreessen Horowitz LLC. A major investor in Andreessen’s firm is former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who a few years ago promised to destroy the yellow cab business in New York City. In early 2015, Lyft also raised over $500 million in funding from a Japanese venture capital firm.
Meanwhile, there is another facet of the rivalry between Uber and Lyft. As China pushes aggressively to grow Didi Kuaidi, its own dominant ridesharing service, against inroads in China from Uber, it is investing in Lyft. Alibaba, Tencent, and Softbank Capital have also piled in, joining the anti-Uber alliance.
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Bill O’reilly And Virginia Tech Controversy
On September 6, 2007, Nas performed at a free concert for the Virginia Tech student body and faculty, following the school shooting there. He was joined by John Mayer, Alan Jackson, Phil Vassar, and Dave Matthews Band. When announced that Nas was to perform, political commentator Bill O’Reilly and Fox News denounced the concert and called for Nas’s removal, citing “violent” lyrics on songs such as “Shoot ‘Em Up”, “Got Urself a Gun”, and “Made You Look”. During his Talking Points Memo segment for August 15, 2007, an argument erupted in which O’Reilly claimed that it was not only Nas’s lyrical content that made him inappropriate for the event, citing the gun conviction on Nas’s criminal record.
On September 6, 2007, during his set at “A Concert for Virginia Tech”, Nas twice referred to Bill O’Reilly as “a chump”, prompting loud cheers by members of the crowd. About two weeks later, Nas was interviewed by Shaheem Reid of MTV News, where he criticised O’Reilly, calling him uncivilized and willing to go to extremes for publicity. Responding to O’Reilly, Nas, in an interview with MTV News, said:
Nas Is A Venture Capitalist
Those Ring doorbells you see capturing doorstep videos everywhere are connected to Nas. He is a founding member of QueensBridge Venture Partners, and the firm was an early investor Ring.
When the smart home security company was acquired by Amazon for $1 billion in 2018, Nas made $40 million from the deal.
Among the other companies Nas firm invested in since 2014 are Lyft, Genius, Coinbase, Exo, Dropbox, Houseparty, and General Assembly, per Crunchbase.
QueensBridge Venture Partners also parlayed its stake in Pluto TV into a multi-million dollar deal. The team invested in the streaming TV service in 2014 and in 2019, it was sold to Viacom for $340 million.
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Nasir And The Lost Tapes 2
In January 2013, Nas announced he had begun working on his twelfth studio album, which would be his final album for Def Jam. The album was supposed to be released during 2015. In October 2013, DJ Premier said that his collaboration album with Nas, would be released following his twelfth studio album. In October 2013, Nas confirmed that a rumored song “Sinatra in the Sands” featuring Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, and Timbaland would be featured on the album.
On April 16, 2014, on the twentieth anniversary of Illmatic, the documentary Nas: Time Is Illmatic was premiered which recounted circumstances leading up to Nas’s debut album. It was reported on September 10, that Nas has finished his last album with Def Jam. On October 30, Nas released a song which might have been the first single on his new album, titled “The Season”, produced by J Dilla. Nas has also collaborated with the Australian hip-hop group, Bliss n Eso, in 2014. They released the track “I Am Somebody” in May 2014. Nas was featured on the song “We Are” from Justin Bieber‘s fourth studio album, Purpose, released in November 2015.
Nas was announced as one of the executive producers of the Netflix original series, The Get Down, prior to its release in August 2016. He narrated the series and rapped as adult Ezekiel of 1996. He also appeared on DJ Khaled‘s album Major Key, on a track simply titled “Nas Album Done”, suggesting an upcoming album was not only completed, but also was imminent.
Did You Know That Nas As In Nas The Rapper Is A Venture Capitalist
In the world of hip-hop, rappers turned businessmen Shawn Jay Z Carter, Andre Dr. Dre Young and Curtis 50 Cent Jackson being the most recognizable names have become fairly commonplace. Nowadays, most artists have side ventures in music , apparel, food and beverages. Yet however impressive their individual business prowess, few of them are able to call themselves full-fledged investors in Silicon Valley start-ups.
QueensBridge, based in Los Angeles, invests in more than 40 start-ups across a range of sectors like financial technology, health care and music production. That has helped put Jones in the same strata as Ashton Kutcher and U2 frontman Bono as the tech worlds most influential celebrity investors.
So in a complex sector where billions are harvested and cash hungry start-ups are born and buried in the blink of an eye how does one of raps living legends define his investment philosophy? Jones answer is surprisingly simple.
People. That is the absolute No. 1, Jones told CNBC via email. I love to bet on great people that inspire me and make me think or see things differently.
A big part of that has to do with the management team, Jones added, which makes a huge difference in the kinds of companies that will stick out to me.
Some of the companies that have grabbed the artists attention include Silicon Valley darlings like Lyft, Dropbox, Coinbase and Tradesy, all of which are part of QueensBridges investment bailiwick.
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Ring And Pillpack Buyouts
Two of Nas biggest payouts came courtesy of Ring and PillPack. According to The Source, Nas received a handsome $40 million after Amazon bought out both of the companies in a deal that was estimated to be worth between $1 billion and $2 billion, at the time.
Amazons acquisition of PillPack supported its growing effort to expand into the healthcare market.
PillPack is meaningfully improving its customers lives, and we want to help them continue making it easy for people to save time, simplify their lives, and feel healthier, said Amazon CEO Worldwide Consumer, Jeff Wilke, to One MusicFest.
How Did Jamie Siminoff Create Ring
For Siminoff, it was the doorbell couldnt hear it from certain parts of the house, and didnt always want to look outside to see whod rung the bell. So, he invented Ring, a doorbell with a camera embedded that connected to a mobile app and notified homeowners whenever someone came to the door.
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How Much Did Nas Invest In Lyft
investmentNasinvestmentsLyft
Read remaining answer here. Correspondingly, how much is Nas Hennessy deal worth?
When you combine Nas‘ Ring and Pillpack exits with his Hennessy endorsement deal and 40 concerts, his 2018 earnings topped $35 million. That number enabled Nas to rank as one of the 10 highest-paid rappers in the world for the first time in his career, believe it or not.
Likewise, how much is Nas worth now? Nas has sold over 25 million records worldwide, which is an incredible achievement and as of 2020, Nas‘ net worth is $70 million, making him one of the richest rappers in the world.
Thereof, how much money did NAS invest in ring?
Nas Will Reportedly Earn $40 Million From Amazon’s Acquisition of Ring. Legendary rapper Nasir Nas Jones may earn more than $40 million thanks to his early investment in Ring once the smart doorbell security company is acquired by Amazon for $1.1 billion.
Does Nas own LYFT?
According to Business Wire, PlutoTV- which Nas‘ company Queensbridge Venture Partners invested in in 2014- has been acquired by media corporation Viacom for $340 million. Even earlier in his investment journey, Nas placed investments in companies like Genius, Lyft and SeatGeek.
How Much Did Nas Make From Ring
Nas is not only a successful rapper, but a great businessman too. He recently earned $40 million by investing in Ring, a smart doorbell company.
What companies does NAS invest in?
Nas was an investor in Dropbox Inc , Casper Sleep Inc and Lyft Inc . Nas is also an investor in privately held SeatGeek. PillPack and Ring, two investments made by Nas, were acquired by Amazon.com, Inc. .
How much did NAS invest in Robinhood?
Robinhood is kicking off its future as a public company with a market cap of USD 34 billion. A couple of astute backers who timed it right are Nas and Snoop Dogg, who invested in the trading app in 2014 when the company had a value of USD 62 million attached.
What did Nas sell to Amazon?
PillPackRapper Nasir Nas Jones venture capital fund scored another victory on Thursday with Amazons announcement that it had acquired online pharmacy PillPack for a reported $1 billion.
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Nasir Jones Queensbridge Venture Partners Invested In 2013 A Source Familiar With The Matter Confirmed Queensbridge Is Still On The Coinbase Cap Table
U.S. rapper Nasir Jones is among the fortunate few to have made early investments in Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange expected to reach over $100 billion in valuation when its COIN stock lists on Wednesday.
Jones investment firm, QueensBridge Venture Partners, got into Coinbases Series B round back in 2013 when it raised $25 million. Around that time Coinbase was valued at about $143 million, according to PitchBook.
The Nas news shows just how far Coinbases public listing will ripple across the world of venture capital, with everyone from Wall Street veterans to A-list celebrities all standing to win big when the chips fall this week.
QueensBridge, which was also a backer of Robinhood in 2013 and later Lyft and Dropbox, makes early-stage investments of between $100,000 and $500,000, according to Jones QueensBridge co-founder Anthony Saleh.
Dividing the firms $100,000$500,000 stake by the share price at the time of Coinbase’s Series B points to QueensBridge owning around 99,329 shares on the low end or 496,642 on the high end, according to an analysis by CoinDesk.
At the price that Coinbase shares last traded on private secondary markets $350 per share Jones firm would have a pot of somewhere between $34.76 million and $173.8 million. If Coinbase shares trade at investment bank DA Davidson’s new price target of $440, QueensBridge could see the value of its Coinbase stake rise to $43.7 million and $218.5 million, respectively.
Not All Ipos Are Successful
The earnestness to get into high-profile IPOs is often prompted by memories of other big-name companies that investors wish they had invested in, said certified financial planner Douglas Boneparth, president and founder of Bone Fide Wealth.
Take , for example. The company’s 2004 IPO raised more than $1.8 billion. What it also did was make many of its shareholders richer, particularly if they held on to their stock.
“Generally speaking, don’t do all that well,” Boneparth said. “But people tend to think of the ones that have done really well.
“You can point to many more unsuccessful IPOs than you can point to successful IPOs.”
If you do decide you want to invest, you should do your due diligence, Boneparth added. A company’s Form S-1 filed with the SEC will disclose all of its financial details and the risks it identifies for its business going forward.
“Ultimately, you want to know how the company makes its money, how it plans to continue making money how it plans to grow its businesses or core business,” Boneparth said.
You should also take a look at your own balance sheet, including how much you can realistically afford to invest in the company and whether you will be willing to stay invested if the stock plummets, said Winnie Sun, founder of Sun Group Wealth Partners.
“I like to do a wait-and-see before jumping into the holding,” Sun said of a company’s first couple of weeks of trading. “We let the stock kind of come to our price versus chasing the stock itself.”
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