In our fortnightly celebrity investment and wealth round-up, Jared Leto continues investing in generative AI start-ups and Kriti Sanon buys plot of land
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has teamed up with Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp to invest $100 million in HexClad, the maker of non-stick cookware, in an expansion of their food-based entertainment partnership.
The minority investment will be made by Studio Ramsay Global, a joint venture between broadcaster Fox and Ramsay that produces food-orientated TV shows, the companies said on July 16.
The deal includes both cash and media commitments, they said.
The British celebrity chef, 57, has a net worth of $220 million, according to celebrity wealth tracking platform Celebrity Net Worth.
He has opened a number of celebrated restaurants, launched his US-based TV show Hell’s Kitchen and has regularly been featured on the Food Network.
He has restaurants in Dubai, Tokyo, London, New York, Ireland and Canada, and has become a cornerstone of Fox food-orientated programming that includes Next Level Chef, Kitchen Nightmares and Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars.
Ramsay and Fox formed Studio Ramsay Global three years ago and recently launched Bite, a food and entertainment-focused multimedia brand.
The agreement with HexClad marks the first investment in a consumer product by the partnership, though Ramsay personally acquired a stake in HexClad in 2021.
The celebrity chef has acted as a brand ambassador for HexClad. He has used the cookware on his TV shows and in his restaurants.
Los Angeles-based HexClad, founded in 2016, was forecast to generate $350 million in revenue in 2023, co-founder Daniel Winer told the Modern Retail podcast last year.
Sales soared during the Covid-19 pandemic after HexClad sent pans to celebrities who posted their use on social media. The closely held business has a valuation greater than $1 billion.
Ramsay’s real estate portfolio includes a five-bedroom mansion in Bel Air, Los Angeles, a home in London, and at least three homes in the English seaside town of Fowey, Celebrity Net Worth reported.
He is a car enthusiast and Ferrari lover and has a sizeable collection, including a Ferrari LaFerrari painted in Grigio Ferro, a Ferrari 488 Spider, a Ferrari 812 Superfast, an Aston Martin DBS Superleggera, a McLaren Senna and a Porsche 918 Spyder, according to the website.
He sold a 50 per cent stake in his North American restaurant business to private equity firm Lion Capital in 2019.
Lion Capital will invest $100 million to build 100 Gordon Ramsay restaurants in the US in the next five years.
US actor and musician Jared Leto joined a $60 million funding round in a start-up called Captions. AFP
Jared Leto
US actor and musician Jared Leto joined a $60 million funding round in a start-up called Captions, which develops generative artificial intelligence in the video creation and editing space, as venture capital investors continue to pour billions of dollars into AI companies that are trying to compete with industry heavyweights OpenAI and Google.
Captions announced its series C funding round on July 9, in which Leto invested alongside venture capital heavyweights such as Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, as well as Index Ventures and Adobe.
The start-up said that with the series C round, which values the company at $500 million, it has now raised $100 million.
Leto previously invested in another generative AI start-up called Pika in June.
Designers for Leto’s rock band, Thirty Seconds to Mars, have experimented with Pika and incorporated its videos into some of the footage shown on stage at concerts, Bloomberg reported.
Leto, who has starred in films such as Fight Club, Girl, Interrupted, Dallas Buyers Club and Suicide Squad, has a personal fortune estimated at $90 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Outside of his acting career, Leto, 52, is also the frontman and primary songwriter for Thirty Seconds to Mars, which he started with brother Shannon in 1998. They released their debut album, 30 Seconds to Mars, in 2002.
The band has sold more than 15 million albums.
Leto is also the founder of social media management company The Hive, concert ticket company Adventures In Wonderland (whose name changed in 2013 from The One and Only Golden Tickets) and live-streaming video service VyRT, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
He was also an investor in website Reddit, private jet airline Surf Air and financial services company Robinhood.
In 2015, Leto purchased a home in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, for $5 million. The home, which was once the Lookout Mountain Air Force Station, contains eight bedrooms and 12 bathrooms, the website reported.
Kriti Sanon, 33, has a net worth estimated at $2 million, according to Celebrity
