Kobe Bryant leaves two Billion dollar estate

The world knew Kobe Bryant as a world class athlete and basketball superstar but he was also a brilliant and extremely successful businessman. With his untimely death, former Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant left behind a 20-year basketball career, five NBA championships, two Olympic gold medals and a budding business empire that stretched into venture capital, media and, of course, sports with a couple of D.C.-area connections. Bryant died on Sunday at age 41 in a helicopter accident in Calabasas, California.

Called Bryant Stibel, their firm has invested in several Los Angeles startups, including legal solutions provider LegalZoom, natural baby and beauty brand The Honest Co. and mobile gaming company Scopely, as well as Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba and the failed home-juicing company Juicero.

The firm’s assets are now worth more than $2 billion. One of its portfolio companies, Represent, was an L.A. social commerce startup that made T-shirts and other merchandise for celebrities to sell. Bryant Stibel was still an investor in Represent when it sold in 2016 to CustomInk, a custom T-shirt company based in Merrifield, for undisclosed terms, though a source at the time said the price neared $100 million.

With that sale, Bryant Stibel and other investors exited their stake in Represent, though the latter’s team, still based in Los Angeles, tweeted its tribute to Bryant Sunday afternoon. Bryant Stibel also invested in Epic Games, maker of the outrageously popular “Fortnite” video game, alongside esports company aXiomatic, which in turn is a portfolio investment for Monumental Sports and Entertainment and personal investment for its founder and CEO, Ted Leonsis.