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It's become almost second nature for a celeb to have some sort of side hustle. Why just make money acting when you can also release a perfume or found a clothing line bearing your name?
And in recent years, more and more celebs have moved their business ventures into the tech space. While it might make sense for, say, singers to do so (why not have your own headphone brand?), actors, comedians, and athletes have made names for themselves in Silicon Valley, too.
Some investments have panned out, but others have bit the dust. A few have even led to legal troubles. Regardless, each has presented new opportunities for our favorite and most infamous public figures to extend their personal brands. Kim Kardashian's mobile game is almost as famous as she is, and we'd dare to argue that the same is true of Dr. Dre's Beats headphones. And both have earned them lots of cash.
Click through to see 18 unexpected tech "stars" and find out which celeb-created products you can get now.
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Aside from convincing Apple that artists should be paid royalties — even during free trial periods for new users — later this year Taylor Swift is launching a mobile game with Glu, the company behind the successful Kim Kardashian: Hollywood game.
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Justin Bieber has an entrepreneurial side! The singer invested in Spotify, as well as the "comedy app" Shots and the instant-message app Tinychat.
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Among Lady Gaga 's many side projects is her work raising money for Backplane, a startup that has faced tough times as of late. The company was founded as a way to build niche social networks, including one for Gaga's fans, Littlemonsters.com.
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Will Ferrell is behind one of our favorite comedy video websites, Funny or Die, which he cofounded in 2007.
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In many ways, Kim Kardashian conquered the tech scene with her selfie magic and total command of social media. But her involvement really came full circle with Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, a mobile game that continues to bring in big money.
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Of all the bizarre celeb-tech affiliations, Ashton Kutcher 's may be the most buzzed about. Kutcher has invested in everything from Uber and Airbnb to Spotify through his venture fund, A-Grade Investments. Kutcher also launched a tablet with Lenovo, for which he earned the title "product engineer."
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Nick Jonas struck out on his own in music and tech. The singer just launched a complete audio collection — headphones, earphones, and speakers — with high-tech brand Altec Lansing.
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Selena Gomezinvested in Postcard on the Run, an app for creating and sending snail-mail postcards, in 2011. Sadly, it seems like this investment didn't work out — a broken link to the app's website indicates that it's now defunct.
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From The Wolf of Wall Street to Silicon Valley? So it would seem. Leonardo DiCaprio has invested in Mobli, a photo- and video-sharing app, as well as Qloo, a tech company that mines data to make recommendations.
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Among Karlie Kloss 's many talents is a slightly less obvious one: coding. The supermodel founded the coding initiative Kode with Klossy, which offers scholarships and classes to teenage girls.
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It's only fitting that Iron Man has a spot in the tech world. Robert Downey Jr. has invested in MasterClass, a site with video courses taught by the likes of Kevin Spacey and Serena Williams. He's also the cofounder of Downey Ventures, which invests in digital-media startups.
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Jay Z is known for his business savvy, so it's no surprise that he has a stake in the tech world. He founded his production company, Roc Nation, which has made deals with Samsung, and was one of the founding artists of Tidal, the subscription-music company. Tidal's impressive founding roster also includes Alicia Keys, Arcade Fire, Beyoncé, Calvin Harris, Chris Martin, Daft Punk, Deadmau5, Jack White, Jason Aldean, J. Cole, Kanye West, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, and Usher.
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Dr. Dre is all about those beats. Beats by Dre, the rapper's headphones brand that he founded with record producer Jimmy Iovine, has achieved serious status in the audio world. In 2014, Apple acquired the company, bringing Iovine and Dr. Dre under the Apple umbrella (apparently their titles are simply "Jimmy" and "Dre").
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will.i.am has (almost) done it all. The Black Eyed Peas frontman was the first artist to send a song to Mars through a partnership with NASA, is a shareholder in Beats by Dre, and has his own tech company, i.am+. He's released smartwatches, Apple-exclusive Bluetooth headphones, and more.
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Fashion, tech, and on-court domination are a winning combo. In addition to having her own clothing line, tennis star Serena Williams took a cue from Leo and invested in Mobli in 2012.
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Usher joined Robert Downey Jr. in investing in MasterClass, the online-video-course program, and was also one of Tidal's founding artists. And since he discovered Bieber, you could say he helped create another tech investor, too.
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Jared Leto can join Ashton Kutcher in the league of unexpected actors/tech investors. Leto has put money toward more than 50 startups, including Airbnb, Uber, and the smart-home company Nest. He also created The Hive, a social-media-management and digital-marketing company.
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Ryan Seacrest ran into some trouble with his mobile-keyboard startup, Typo. Typo is a keyboard case that basically turns your iPhone into a BlackBerry, with a button-filled keyboard. BlackBerry sued the startup for copycatting its design.
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