Kobe Bryant Unveils Venture Capital Fund

Together with Jeff Stibel, Kobe Bryant revealed the $100 million Venture Capital Fund to be used in technology, media and data companies. The retired NBA player just became a venture capitalist at the age of 38-years-old, but he is not doing it alone.

Partnering with Jeff Stibel an investor and longtime entrepreneur, they will base the firm in the Los Angeles area. Kobe was introduced to Stibel by a mutual friends and they hit it off.

Over the last few years, the two have been investing in around 15 companies to see how things would pan out. It wasn’t until Bryant retired from basketball that they formalized their fund and relationship. Contributing the money between the two of them, they expect to make many investment in the next few years.

Currently, the two are invested in the video game designer Scopely, the sports media website The Players Tribune, a home-juicing company called Juicero, a telemarketing-software firm called RingDNA and legal service company LegalZoom. Between the two of them, they make a good team with Bryant’s creativity and attention to fine details and Stibel's experience.

The name Kobe is a masculine diminutive of the Dutch name Jakob or Jacob, which was taken from the Latin lacobus. The Latin name was from the Greek lakobos that was taken from the Hebrew name Ya’aqov. The name Jacob was from the Old Testament and the meaning is given as “holder of the heel” or “supplanter”; or even “may God protect”.