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Priyanka Chopra Is a Tech Investor, Too


Priyanka Chopra said her investments in technology would skew heavily toward companies with an element of social impact, and companies founded by women. 
Credit Amy Lombard for The New York Times

In one of her first acts as a start-up investor, the actor Priyanka Chopra recently toured the San Francisco home of her new portfolio company, a coding education company called Holberton School.

The campus resembles a work more than a school, with open-plan rows of desks, decorative neon lights and meeting rooms named after famous people. The school uses projects and group learning, instead of more traditional courses, to teach software development.

“You just hang out and you’re learning,” Ms. Chopra said. “It’s amazing.”

Ms. Chopra, 36, has been doing a lot of hanging out and learning in technology circles lately. In between presenting at the Emmys, sitting in the front row at New York Fashion Week, celebrating the birthday of her fiancé, Nick Jonas, in Texas, and darting to her native India to act in a movie, she has squeezed in meetings with start-up founders and lined up future investments.

“Geeks are taking over the world,” Ms. Chopra said. “If they haven’t already,” she quickly added.

There’s no shortage of celebrities investing in tech start-ups. So far, deals from male actors, athletes and musical artists have garnered much more attention than those from famous women. Ashton Kutcher is a regular at tech conferences; Carmelo Anthony and Nas have their own funds; Leonardo DiCaprio has been an adviser to at least three venture firms.

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