Shaquille O’Neal is making his first foray into artificial intelligence. The purpose-driven startup has a cause close to the NBA legend’s heart. His philanthropic ventures have aided literacy and education before. This marks the first time he’s investing in technology towards it.

A lot of factors attracted him to the edtech startup. One of them has to do with the third richest man in the world.

Shaquille O’Neal credits Amazon founder for new investment

Shaquille O’Neal joined the CEO of Edsoma, Kyle Walgren at the 2023 TechCrunch Disrupt this week. Edsoma is an AI-powered reading, learning and communication app for young children. It aids reading and communication habits and furthers literacy, causes that the Los Angeles Lakers legend has been supporting for many years. It’s the first edtech investment for Shaq, who is known to only back businesses he believes in.

At Disrupt, he revealed what moved him to invest a chunk of his $400 million fortune in Edsoma.

“I went to a conference in ‘97 or ‘98 and I heard a beautiful bald-headed man by the name of Jeff Bezos say if you invest in things, it’s going to change people’s lives,” O’Neal said at the conference.

Over two decades later, Walgren entered the picture and intrigued him with his startup. With the NBA star’s backing, Edsoma has raised $2.5 million in a seed round. Shaq and the company have kept his investment figure a secret.

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Again, Shaq had $160 billion worth Bezos’ philosophy on his mind when he partnered with Walgren. “So when Kyle came into the office and he started talking about children, about education and his love for children, I knew it was going to be a great fit. And when I heard Jeff Bezos say that, I started investing in things that’s gonna change people’s lives.”

Despite the Jeff Bezos principle driving him, the Edsoma CEO had to work a little harder to get Big Diesel’s big influence.

Shaq’s stance on investing

Until recently, O’Neal was wary of artificial intelligence. Although drawn to Edsoma’s initiative to promote literacy, he needed some more convincing. He was only on board after he tested the app himself and thought it was useful.

He’s not only helping its money-raising efforts, he’s adding his input in improvements. Under Shaq’s advice, Edsoma will enable the app to teach languages and also function as an ESL tool. True to Bezos’ principle on changing people’s lives, O’Neal wants to ensure that children from every type of environment will have access to education resources.

At Disrupt, Shaquille O’Neal said he doesn’t have a specific investing formula. Wanting to help people makes it easy for him to decide. The Big Aristotle now needs to share some of this investing advice in a seminar of his own.

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