Diesel CEO Renzo Rosso Invests In Italian Startups

VentureBeat reports that Diesel CEO Renzo Rosso is now the proud owner of a 20% stake in H-farm, an Italian startup incubator. We’ve seen celebrities turning their attention to online fashion startups, but it is rare to see fashion moguls turning their attention to online ventures in general.

Tyra Banks has done well with her TypeF partnership with Demand Media, but that’s more of a media play that looks to capitalize on the things that have made Banks a successful TV personality. We have to include that though, because there’s really not many other examples of people who’ve made their fortunes in fashion investing in tech ventures (fashion tech ventures included).

There aren’t any specifics on how much the 20% investment cost Rosso’s Red Circle investment holding, but the fund has invested €9.5 million (approximately $13.6 million at today’s exchange rates) across 26 companies in its five year history.

In a statement on the H-farm website, Rosso says “I’m a great fan of H-Farm which I always associate to the Silicon Valley: 250 young people connected with thousands of creative people all over the world. It’s like a hothouse of ideas and innovation which constantly stimulates my vision of the world and of the way to do business. The digital world fascinates and excites me, my personal investment choices are clearly showing it.”

Silicon Valley is still undoubtedly a bit larger than the rural Italian estate that H-farm operates from, but overlooking Venice for up to 3 years sounds like it could have some charm of its own. In addition to the estate, where the seed funded startups are initially based, there are H-farm branches in Seattle, London and Mumbai.