There is no shortage of celebrities who besides the day-job, are turning green and punting big on plant food.
Madonna has invested in Vita Coco, a coconut water business, Leonardo DiCapriccio owns a stake in Impossible Foods (and is a brand ambassador) and Serena Williams has gone into Baby food.
A few months ago news of Oprah Winfrey’s investment in Oatly, which has recently been valued at $10b, attracted headline attention.
This week I learnt that Lewis Hamilton of F1 and Netflix fame owns a slice of Neat Burger, a London based plant food burger franchise.
Neat Burger has just 5 venues with plans for 20 dark kitchens doing delivery only.
According to UK companies House filings Neat Burger is still is its infancy. It produced a loss of £220,000 in 2020 and had assets of just over £1 million.
Yet Softbank has joined the party and valued the business at over $70m (£50 million) according to the FT.
Hamilton is a vegan and his early backing of the chain continues to reverberate.
“I can’t wait for the (Neat Burger) team to expand internationally”
Lewis Hamilton
Is a celebrity investor a critical success factor for a start-up? Perhaps not regarding management but it sure helps to persuade others to dive in.