HartBeat Ventures

What HartBeat Ventures does

HartBeat Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2019 by comedian and entrepreneur Kevin Hart and headquartered in Encino, California. The firm operates as an investment vehicle focused on backing diverse and underrepresented founders, with an explicit thesis across the wellness, fitness, and AI sectors. It does not develop proprietary technology products; its "platform" is capital deployment, strategic guidance, and the marketing leverage derived from Kevin Hart's celebrity brand and institutional relationships such as J.P. Morgan's Project Spark initiative.

The firm sources and executes investments in seed through Series B rounds, both as a lead investor and as a co-investor alongside institutional VCs including a16z speedrun, Patron, Liquidity, and Emergence Capital. Its portfolio includes consumer and AI companies such as Simple Life (AI health coaching app, $35M Series B led by HartBeat in October 2025), Sweatpals (community-based fitness platform, $12M seed co-led in November 2025), Genspark (AI workspace suite, $385M Series B extension at $1.6B valuation in April 2026), Gran Coramino (Kevin Hart's tequila brand, $85M revenue with 80%+ YoY growth), and prior exit successes Liquid I.V. (sold to Unilever for $500M) and Jackpocket (acquired by DraftKings for $750M).

HartBeat's business model is standard venture capital: it raises capital from limited partners, deploys that capital into portfolio companies in exchange for equity, and generates returns through management fees and carried interest on successful exits. Its differentiation rests on Kevin Hart's brand-driven deal flow and distribution leverage, its institutional partnership with J.P. Morgan, and a horizontal thesis targeting lifestyle-adjacent verticals where celebrity resonance and audience access are commercially meaningful. The firm employs 11–50 people and operates primarily in the United States with selective international exposure.

Name

HartBeat Ventures

Legal name

HartBeat Ventures

Website

https://hartbeatventures.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

HartBeat Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm founded by Kevin Hart in 2019 that invests in diverse and underrepresented founders across wellness, fitness, and AI sectors, backing companies such as Simple Life, Sweatpals, and Genspark.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Venture Capital

NAICS

Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (52394), Other Financial Vehicles (525990)

SIC

Investment Advice (6282)

akta.pro primary industry

Micro-VC & Angel Funds (FSANAAAI)

Keywords

• Early-stage venture capital
• Startup investing
• Diverse founder funding
• Wellness sector investing
• AI startup funding

Headquarters

HQ city

Encino

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Venture Capital Returns: HartBeat Ventures generates returns through equity investments in early-stage startups. The firm has produced notable exits, including Liquid I.V.'s sale to Unilever for $500 million and Jackpocket's acquisition by DraftKings for $750 million, demonstrating investment success in the wellness and entertainment sectors.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

HartBeat Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage startups, with an explicit focus on diverse and underrepresented founders across the wellness, fitness, and AI sectors. The firm deploys capital as lead and participating investor in seed and Series B rounds, and realizes returns through equity exits such as Liquid I.V.'s $500M sale to Unilever and Jackpocket's $750M sale to DraftKings.

Product overview

HartBeat Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm founded by comedian Kevin Hart in 2019. The firm operates as an investment vehicle focused on supporting diverse and underrepresented founders, rather than offering its own technology products or services. HartBeat Ventures does not maintain a product portfolio; instead, it builds a portfolio of invested companies including Liquid I.V. (hydration technology, acquired by Unilever for $500M), Jackpocket (lottery app, acquired by DraftKings for $750M), Gran Coramino (tequila brand generating $85M revenue), Genspark (AI technology company valued at $1.6B), Sweatpals (community-based fitness platform), and Simple Life (AI-powered health coaching app).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• Liquid I.V. exited at $500 million (Unilever acquisition)
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Patron: Early-stage consumer-focused VC that has co-invested directly with HartBeat (Sweatpals seed). Closest direct peer on consumer/wellness thesis at the seed stage.
• MaC Venture Capital: Seed-stage VC investing in founders of color and those building companies that connect culture and enterprise. Shares HartBeat's diversity-led, early-stage focus and co-invests in similar founder pools.
• Sound Ventures: Venture firm co-founded by Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary, investing across consumer tech, AI, and frontier categories. Celebrity-anchored early/growth-stage VC with comparable deal-size range and consumer orientation.
• Seven Seven Six: Alexis Ohanian's early-stage VC fund with a thematic focus on consumer, gaming, and tech. Direct analogue as another celebrity-founded, consumer-leaning seed/Series A fund with similar check-size profile.
• Backstage Capital: Arlan Hamilton-led seed VC fund focused exclusively on underrepresented founders, including women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs. Most direct mandate-overlap peer to HartBeat's diversity-focused investment thesis at the seed/early stage.
• Black Ambition: Pharrell Williams-founded nonprofit venture fund backing Black and Hispanic entrepreneurs building consumer, healthcare, and tech ventures. Closely comparable celebrity-anchored, mission-driven early-stage VC model.
• Liquidity: Early-stage VC focused on health and wellness companies, co-led Simple Life's $35M Series B with HartBeat. Highly comparable wellness-sector seed/Series A specialist.

Broad incumbents

• a16z speedrun: Andreessen Horowitz's accelerator/seed program for gaming and consumer startups. Repeated co-investor with HartBeat (Sweatpals). Much larger incumbent that overlaps on early-stage consumer deal flow.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hartbeat-ventures

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments19 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about HartBeat Ventures