It’s unbelievably been four months since basketball great Kobe Bryant, his daughter, Gianna, and seven individuals traveling with them died on Jan. 26 in a helicopter crash that was en route to the Mamba Sports Academy in California. It was announced in May 2020 that Bryant’s widow, Vanessa,
has inherited a substantial amount from his stakes in sports drink brand BodyArmor, causing her current net worth to exponentially increase.
Vanessa Bryant received a huge inheritance from her husband’s savvy business deal
Kobe Bryant, in 2013, invested what is now a measly $5 million in the sports drink brand, BodyArmor, for a 10% stake in the company.
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At that time, The brand counted Kobe as one of its biggest shareholders but had three even bigger ones: Coca-Cola, Keurig Dr. Pepper, and BodyArmor’s founder, Mike Repole. The businessman told Fox Business in May 2020 that without Kobe’s backing, the product which is near $1 billion in revenue, would have gone nowhere.
Repole reflected on the sports star’s impact on the company and his loss to him, personally.
“I lost a dear friend. I lost a brother with Kobe and BodyArmor lost a founding father. Kobe Bryant’s fingerprints are all over the BodyArmor brand.
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The brand wouldn’t be in the position it’s in if Kobe wasn’t a believer back in 2012 and 2013.” Without Kobe now, Repole wants to continue BodyArmor with his good friend always at the forefront of his mind.
“For me, this has always been a journey, the last seven or eight years, with Kobe, and now I feel like this is a journey for Kobe,” Repole said. “To me, BodyArmor really is his business legacy. Kobe saw in BodyArmor, when we were under $5 million in sales, what nobody else saw.”
