When it comes to having an eye for startups, Nas knows how to pick them. PillPack, a door-to-door pharmacy service backed by the rapper’s venture capital fund, scored big last week when Amazon acquired the company for $1 billion.
Amazon shared the news on June 28, with plans to finalize the deal as soon as this fall. PillPack was founded by TJ Parker, a second-generation pharmacist and Elliot Cohen, a computer scientist, the Chicago Tribune reports. The company ships consumers their medications across the country.
Nas’ Queensbridge Venture Partners was an early investor in 2014. Fox Business reports the fund raised $8.8 million for the startup. Since then, the company raised a reported $118 million in private capital before Amazon’s acquisition. This marks the second time Amazon purchased a company supported by the rapper. In March, Amazon acquired Ring, a smart doorbell company for $1 billion. The rapper made $40M in the deal.
“PillPack’s visionary team has a combination of deep pharmacy experience and a focus on technology,” Jeff Wilke, Amazon CEO Worldwide Consumer said in a press release.“PillPack is meaningfully improving its customers’ lives, and we want to help them continue making it easy for people to save time, simplify their lives, and feel healthier. We’re excited to see what we can do together on behalf of customers over time.”
The owners raked in $100 million each in the deal. There’s no telling what Nas and his company scored, but we’re sure it’s another pretty penny.
The Queensbridge Venture enterprise has great taste in startups. Nas has placed investments in companies like Genius (formerly Rap Genius), Lyft and SeatGeek.
Source: VIBE
