Fun fact: Leonardo DiCaprio, everyone’s favorite Oscar winner and climate change activist, is also a low-key businessman. The actor has invested in everything from a garbage company to an Amazonian tea purveyor and the popular mattress startup Casper, as documented on Crunchbase. His latest move involves sinking some cash into Qloo, a startup that bills itself as a “cultural recommendations engine.”
So how does it work? Qloo says it has “mapped the taste genome” by combing through massive amounts of data. Then, it spits out answers to burning questions from brands and advertisers about the preferences of their target audiences when it comes to things like food, music and TV. For instance, as TechCrunch reports, Qloo can tell you the favorite music artists of fans of the Golden State Warriors vs. fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers. That’s no small thing: it helps advertisers ensure they’re marketing the right things to both groups, collectively or separately, based on what they do and don’t share. (For instance, Warriors fans like Drake and Cavs fans like Li’l Wayne, but both groups like pizza and SportsCenter.)
The Series A round, which DiCaprio participated in, raised $4.5 million for the company. DiCaprio certainly has eclectic taste in investments; only time will tell if this endeavor will reap the same kinds of rewards he’s been bringing in with his work on the big screen.
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