(Bloomberg) -- Michael Jordan is trying his hand as a venture capitalist.
San Francisco-based startup Gigster announced today that it has raised $20 million from a group of investors that includes the six-time NBA champion and Charlotte Hornets majority owner. The three-year-old Gigster, which connects freelance web engineers and developers with companies looking for help, has raised $32.5 million. The most recent fundraising round was led by Redpoint Ventures, along with Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures, and Marc Benioff. (Bloomberg LP’s venture capital fund Bloomberg Beta is also an investor.)
Jordan is part of a wave of current and former athletes, especially from the NBA, who are taking stakes in Silicon Valley startups. He invested previously in the Switzerland-based sports data company Sportradar. A representative for Jordan declined to comment.
“He is somebody that I have always looked up to and admired, and we thought it would be great to have a more diverse set of investors at the table," said Gigster co-founder and CEO Roger Dickey. The company has been in talks with leagues and teams about becoming customers, he said, and Jordan could help with those efforts.