Last Updated on September 6, 2018
Robert Downey Jr. is most famous for his role as Iron Man, the eccentric superhero. In real life, he is much more like Iron Man’s billionaire alter ego, Tony Stark. In the last three years, his investment company, Downey Ventures, made big investments in various companies. Downey Ventures is part of Team Downey. The latter is an entertainment company Robert Downey Jr. founded with his wife, Susan Downey.
Robert Downey Jr.’s Fundraising
The first notable investment was at the beginning of 2015. It was a Series A funding round, raising $4.5 million for the online education platform MasterClass. Afterward, there was another Series B funding round with high-profile celebrity investors. These included the musician Usher and Robert Downey Jr. himself. This round raised another $15 million for the learning platform. They used the money to hire new instructors and widen the variety of the subject areas taught. MasterClass already has educational video courses with celebrities like Dustin Hoffman or Usher. According to MasterClass CEO David Rogier, they are “not only changing how people learn, but [they are] on [their] way to building the destination everyone goes to first to learn from the very best.”
The second significant investment Downey Ventures made in June 2016 is not surprising from the real-life Iron Man. He invested in the Series A funding that has raised $18.5 million for Loot Crate. The company is a subscription startup in Los Angeles specializing in geek memorabilia. Now, the fast-growing company offers four different categories from which to choose your monthly boxes. The types are pop culture, gaming, film & TV, and Loot Wear, which specializes in clothes and accessories. All the categories have subcategories so that fans can find their own favorites. Each box includes 4-7 items. These could be anything from a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Pizza Cookbook to a Spider-Man Sleep Mask. According to CEO Chris Davis, Loot Crate is like “Comic-Con in a box.”
Robert Downey Jr. made a good bet that Loot Crate would rocket into the sky like Iron Man. It’s nice to see him investing in the scene, which has given him so much. We are all rooting for this hero.
