Startup fever just hit the Hollywood A-list. Mobli, a visual social platform, announced today that Leonardo DiCaprio was one of the “high profile investors” behind its $4 million seed round.
Mr. DiCaprio, who ranks no. 71 on Forbes latest list of The Celebrity 100 for commanding $28 million a film, will also be taking on an advisory role at Mobli.
As Mashable’s Sarah Kessler reports, aside from the ability to follow users/locations/topics and a tagging feature that automatically adds the location of the image or an event in the vicinity, Mobli’s big distinguishing factor is its celebrity connections.
“Well-known users like Paris Hilton and David Arquette have helped user acquisition — and now that Mobli is being more specific about what kind of investors stand behind it, it’s easier to understand how the startup might have gained such influential users.
DiCaprio uses the platform, but sparingly. He’s posted seven times, but managed to collect more than 8,000 followers along the way. The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, an environmental organization, has posted 24 times.”
Lukas Haas, a fixture in Mr. DiCaprio’s entourage, appears to be a more frequent Mobli user.
As Mashable also points out, celebrity traffic spikes, like the wave of Beliebers who followed Justin Beiber’s first Instagram, or even @aplusk’s Twitter effect, aren’t necessarily a bad thing.
Maybe it’s time for CAA to set up that Silicon Valley office they were sniffing around. And if the whole thing bursts, hey at least they’ll have a lead on the movie rights.
