Rapper Nas invested early in PillPack, Amazon’s latest buy
Rapper Nasir “Nas” Jones’ venture capital fund scored another victory on Thursday with Amazon’s announcement that it had acquired online pharmacy PillPack for a reported $1 billion.
Jones’ Queensbridge Venture Partners was an early investor in the prescription drug delivery service. The fund participated in an early investment round that raised $8.8 million for the startup, which streamlines the prescription drug delivery process for people that require multiple daily medications and ships to all 50 states.
“PillPack’s visionary team has a combination of deep pharmacy experience and a focus on technology,” said Jeff Wilke, Amazon CEO Worldwide Consumer. “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 acquisition marks the second time that Amazon has purchased a company that counted Queensbridge Venture Partners as an early investor. The e-commerce giant previously bought home security tech startup Ring for a reported $1.2 billion last February.
PillPack raised a total of roughly $118 million in private capital before its acquisition by Amazon.
Jones’ team has also invested in direct-to-consumer mattress company Casper, ticket reseller SeatGeek, digital media brand Genius and ride-sharing service Lyft, among other companies, according to CrunchBase. The Los Angeles-based firm’s investments have ranged from healthcare to technology to cryptocurrency.
The Grammy-nominated rapper, 44, has released 11 full-length albums and sold millions of records during his music career.