In our fortnightly superstar funding and wealth round-up, Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma again a plant-based meat model and Will Ferrell invests in Danish challenger financial institution Lunar

Dwayne JohnsonDwayne “The Rock” Johnson is the top-earning actor on Forbes’ listing of highest-paid entertainers in 2022, coming in at quantity 4 with an estimated annual wage of $270 million.Johnson’s annual earnings had been boosted by large paydays for the movies Black Adam and Purple Discover. The actor’s box-office bankability sees him command a median of greater than $20m per movie.This yr’s listing is dominated by stars cashing in on the sale of inventive properties. About half of the highest 25 earners, together with Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson (at no 1, with $580m) and rocker Bruce Springsteen (quantity 2, $435m), made the listing by promoting all or a part of their music catalogues or studiosRounding out the highest 5 are Jay-Z, who was ranked third with $340m, and Kanye West in fifth place with $235m.Franchise favorite Johnson, 49, has a web price of $800m, in accordance with wealth monitoring web site Superstar Web Value. A former WWE wrestler, he is likely one of the highest-paid actors on the planet, taking house an estimated $100m from movie and endorsement earnings in a typical yr.The Quick and Livid actor’s movies have grossed greater than $10.5 billion worldwide. He has additionally been related to manufacturers equivalent to Ford and Apple.However he’s additionally an astute businessman. The near-$1bn estimate of the actor’s web price contains his stake within the disruptive Teremana beverage model he based in 2020 with co-owners and enterprise companions Ken Austin, Jenna Fagnan, Dany Garcia and the Lopez household from Jalisco, Mexico. Ms Garcia is Johnson’s former partner.Johnson is assumed to personal between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of the model, which could possibly be conservatively valued at about $2bn based mostly on a current interview the actor gave to CNN, accounting for the most important portion of his wealth. His objective this yr is to make the beverage “a very worldwide model”.Johnson and Ms Garcia, an American businesswoman, based multi-platform manufacturing firm Seven Bucks in 2012 to develop authentic content material for tv, movie, rising expertise and digital networksFrom the Baywatch movie to final yr’s Purple Discover, the corporate has taken greater than $2.7bn in box-office gross sales. The determine doesn’t embrace income from productions for different mediums, equivalent to NBC’s tv programme Younger Rock.As soon as an aspiring skilled footballer, Johnson and Ms Garcia teamed up with Redbird Capital to rescue the XFL skilled American soccer league from chapter court docket and paid $15m for the franchise.Final week, he introduced a collaboration between the XFL and Nationwide Soccer League. The XFL will now function a testing floor for brand spanking new expertise and rule modifications for the NFL, presumably in return for monetary and trade endorsements.Johnson additionally co-founded sports activities drink model Zoa and is the beverage’s chief power officer. Moreover, he works with US sports activities tools firm Beneath Armour, collaborating on a line of athletic put on, sneakers and headphones known as Venture Rock Assortment.“I contemplate myself an industrialist and an entrepreneur and a businessman as properly. And I’m within the relationship enterprise. I’m within the customer support enterprise. I’m within the shopper product enterprise. And I’m actually within the movie enterprise,” Johnson instructed Vainness Honest final yr.“I like creating merchandise and types which have a sure high quality to them to ship to individuals. However I feel the stripped-away reply right here is: I find it irresistible. I like what I do. Truthfully, I like constructing from scratch with these two outdated dinosaur arms.”Anuskha Sharma and Virat KohliIndian superstar couple Virat Kohli and Anuskha Sharma are the most recent stars to endorse plant-based meats. In February, they joined Mumbai model Blue Tribe as buyers and model ambassadors for an undisclosed quantity.The model retails a variety of faux meat merchandise, together with plant-based mincemeat, sausages and pre-packaged momos. It’s one in every of a number of start-ups in a sector valued at between $30m and $40m, largely pushed by consumer-packaged meals.The collaboration with Blue Tribe is a step to inform individuals how they are often extra acutely aware and depart much less affect on the planet by switching to a plant-based dietAnuskha Sharma, Bollywood actress“Virat and I’ve at all times been animal lovers. It has been years since we determined to undertake a meat-free way of life. The collaboration with Blue Tribe is a step to inform individuals how they are often extra acutely aware and depart much less affect on the planet by switching to a plant-based weight loss plan,” Sharma mentioned.Kohli is estimated to have a web price of between $86m and $120m, due to his earnings from cricket, in addition to investments in India and overseas. Sharma’s web price is estimated to be about $34m, in accordance with Indian media.Apart from model endorsements and her movie work, she is a producer, along with being one in every of India’s most sought-after actresses. Sharma additionally owns Nush, a trend model that she launched in 2017.The couple’s joint investments embrace a $295,000 funding in Pune-based insurance coverage start-up Digit. In 2020, the pair purchased a 0.25 per cent stake within the firm as a part of a $84m fund-raising spherical that valued the three-year-old start-up at $870m, the Financial Instances reported.Actor Will Ferrell attends the premiere of Apple TV’s “The Shrink Subsequent Door” at The Morgan Library on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021, in New York. (Photograph by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)Will FerrellHe famously trolled Norway’s electrical automobiles, however Will Ferrell is now cashing in on Scandinavian superior expertise. This month, the Hollywood actor accepted a double function at Danish challenger financial institution Lunar, which additionally operates in Sweden and Norway. He’s the financial institution’s latest investor and in addition the face of a giant promoting marketing campaign.The announcement was made alongside a 30-second video posted to LinkedIn. Within the video, impressed by a Nineties Swedish industrial for Postbanken, Ferrell performs a life coach and cash guru.Lunar was launched in 2015 and acquired its banking license in 2019. The mobile-based banking app has greater than 400,000 prospects and has raised a complete of €345m ($387.7m) in capital from buyers. Following a collection D funding spherical price €210m final summer time, Lunar is now valued in extra of €1bn.The financial institution is now centered on rising prospects in Sweden, it mentioned.Additionally final week, Lunar expanded its product providing with Lunar Block, a buying and selling platform for cryptocurrencies.The scale of Ferrell’s funding was not disclosed. The Anchorman star will assist to develop the corporate’s public profile and model.“I’m comfortable to now be part of the work Lunar does to present shoppers and corporations extra energy over their cash. By becoming a member of Lunar, I’m increasing my dedication to the Nordic international locations, that are near my coronary heart,” Ferrell mentioned.“Nordic persons are sensible, attractive and are uninterested in having their cash messed with. That’s the place Lunar comes into play as a digital disrupter within the monetary trade.”The actor and comic, 54, is estimated to have a web price of $160m, in accordance with Superstar Web Value.A big a part of Ferrell’s fortune comes from appearing charges, together with back-end participation income. On the peak of his profession within the early 2000s, he was one in every of Hollywood’s highest-paid stars, incomes a $20m wage for movies equivalent to Bewitched, Kicking & Screaming, Talladega Nights and Semi-Professional.Ferrell can also be part-owner of the Los Angeles FC soccer workforce, a purchase order he made in 2016.Along with comedy companion Adam McKay, he based the video web site Humorous Or Die in 2007. It was acquired for an undisclosed sum final yr by designer, activist and Democractic fund-raiser Henry R. Munoz III, who purchased it from former stakeholders together with AMC Networks, WarnerMedia’s Turner and Sequoia Capital.Ferrell stayed on in an advisory capability, in accordance with Selection. When the location was first evaluated on the market in 2014, its house owners had been reportedly looking for between $100m and $300m, in accordance with Bloomberg.Ferrell and McKay have additionally co-produced a number of tv reveals for HBO, together with Eastbound & Down and Succession.Joe RoganControversies may be good public relations, however what ought to they value? Streaming platform Spotify reportedly paid podcast host Joe Rogan greater than $200m for a contract spanning three and a half years, the New York Instances reported final week.That’s double the unique estimate of a $100m paycheque when the deal for his The Joe Rogan Expertise podcast was introduced about two years in the past.In current weeks, Rogan, 54, has been on the centre of a number of controversies. He has been criticised by Spotify customers and artists over his use of racist language in previous episodes of his present, in addition to accused of spreading misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines, resulting in quite a lot of musicians, together with Neil Younger, pulling their music from the streaming service.The American comic, martial arts knowledgeable and Final Combating Championship commentator has a web price of $120m, in accordance with estimates. After internet hosting the TV reveals Information Radio, Concern Issue and The Man Present, Rogan is now thought-about probably the most financially profitable podcasters on this planet.Andrew Wilkinson, chief govt of web funding firm Tiny Capital instructed The Solar this week that Rogan’s self-reported 200 million podcast downloads per thirty days might consequence the host making as much as $240m a yr in promoting income and will result in him being the primary billionaire podcaster. Put up Views: 899