NBA legend Kobe Bryant closed out his professional basketball career earlier this year by dropping 60 points on the Utah Jazz in his final game with the Los Angeles Lakers, and now Bryant is prepared to drop $100 million as a venture capitalist.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Bryant is partnering with Jeff Stibel, a “longtime entrepreneur and investor,” to launch of a new venture capital fund that bares both Bryant and Stibel’s names – Bryant Stibel.
Bryant rang the bell to open the New York Stock Exchange Monday morning, and told CNBC afterwards that he would rather be known for his investing career than for his basketball one.
From CNBC:
"Playing basketball, the focus is always on winning. Winning championships, winning championships, winning championships. Now, championships come and go. There's going to be another team that wins another championship, another player that wins another MVP award." Bryant told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street."
"But if you really want to create something that last generations, you have to help inspire the next generation, and they create something great, and then that generation will inspire the one behind them, right? And that's when you create something forever. And that's what's most beautiful," he said.
According to both the Wall Street Journal and CNBC, Bryant Stibel will focus on investing technology, media, and data companies.
Per the WSJ report, Bryant and Stibel have already been investing together since 2013. A separate WSJ report details some of their earlier investments, including an investment in LegalZoom, a website that offers “do-it-yourself” legal documents, and a pre-IPO investment in Alibaba, the Chinese mega-company.
But one name on the list of 13 investments made by Bryant and Stibel so far jumps out to those in housing – HouseCanary, a provider of software and analytics for the real estate industry.
Earlier this year, HouseCanary made HousingWire Magazine’s Tech100, an award reserved for the 100 most innovative technology companies in housing.
There aren’t any other housing companies in the first round of investments from Bryant and Stibel, but the men have $100 million earmarked for further investing and an apparent affinity for investing in housing tech. Maybe Bryant needs some investing ideas for the next round of Bryant Stibel funding. Good thing we know a few companies worth looking into.
(Image above courtesy of plavevski / Shutterstock.com)
