Thursday, March 28, 2024

Kobe Bryant’s $6M Investment in BodyArmor Now Worth $200M

*Kobe Bryant’s investment in upstart sports drink brand BodyArmor has yielded more than 30 times its money in fewer than four-and-a-half years, ESPN.com reports.

According to the sports news outlet, Coca-Cola announced it purchased a minority stake in the sports drink on Tuesday. The NBA legend made his first investment in the brand, for roughly 10 percent of the company, in March 2014, putting in roughly $6 million over time.

Based on the valuation of the Coca-Cola deal, his stake is now worth approximately $200 million, sources told ESPN.

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Bryant, who is now the fourth largest investor in the brand, wrote, directed and narrated the company’s first-ever television ad, which debuted in April 2017.

“I enjoy storytelling and have always taken an active role in my campaigns throughout my career,” Bryant told FOX Business at the time. “As an investor in BodyArmor, this is additional value I bring to the brand. I’m able to provide a creative voice – as an athlete – to give the product an authentic and credible voice. As a storyteller, I most enjoy finding that one point of differentiation and finding a unique way to get people to understand the message.”

BodyArmor is marketed as a healthier competitor to Gatorade and, according to the report, and is projected to top $400 million in sales in 2018.

Sources tell ESPN that as many as a dozen athletes have equity deals with BodyArmor worth more than $1 million, including James Harden, Dustin Johnson and Andrew Luck.

“That’s one advantage of being a small, growing company – we’re able to do creative deals that are not just about dollars, but about taking an equity stake,” said company founder Mike Repole. “Many of these athletes have invested a lot more money in BodyArmor than they’ve ever been given. They’re part of the team.”

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