Topline
Actress and wellness mogul Gwyneth Paltrow’s venture capital firm is seeking to raise $75 million for its debut fund, Axios reported Thursday, as the Goop CEO further expands her business reach.
Gwyneth Paltrow attends Veuve Clicquot Celebrates 250th Anniversary with Solaire Exhibition on ... [+]
Key Facts
Kinship Ventures was launched in 2021 and is led by Paltrow and Moj Mahdara, the former CEO of BeautyCon Media, a cosmetics and wellness festival.
Kinship plans to invest in early-stage consumer goods firms, technology companies and Web3 startups, according to Axios.
The firm is specifically seeking investments in the education tech, health-tech, beauty, essentials and wellness industries, according to Pitchbook.
In April, Kinship was part of a collective $87 million investment in MoonPay, a cryptocurrency payment platform that was also backed by other celebrities Drake, Post Malone, Paris Hilton and Matthew McConaughey (It’s not clear how much Kinship invested individually).
Forbes has reached out to Kinship Ventures for comment.
Key Background
Paltrow, who was best known for appearing in movies including Iron Man and Shakespeare In Love, started Goop in 2008 as a newsletter. Soon after, it grew into a website and an online shop, becoming a go-to-source for everything wellness, and was a key driver of the industry’s boom. The company has hosted summits and retreats, and in 2020, the docuseries The Goop Lab premiered on Netflix. The site received $50 million in series C funding in 2018. The company has garnered headlines for promoting pseudoscience and for selling eyebrow-raising products on its site, including a $75 candle called that’s supposed to smell like a vagina. In 2021, Insider reported that over 140 employees had departed the company since 2019 due to low pay and leadership difficulties.
Tangent
Paltrow is one of many celebrities-turned-executives to launch their own investment firms. After the success of Kim Kardashian’s shapewear line Skims and her skincare line Skkn, she launched private equity firm SKKY in September. In 2017, Serena Williams founded Serena Ventures, which raised $111 million for its inaugural fund in 2022.
Further Reading
Kim Kardashian Launches Private Equity Firm SKKY (Forbes)
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Accused Of Underpaying, Overworking Employees (Forbes)