Leonardo DiCaprio Invests in Diamond-growing Startup

Business Insider reported that Santa Clara startup Diamond Foundry Inc. claims it’s able to create hundreds of lab-grown diamonds of up to 9 carats in just two weeks. According to the company, the diamonds are different from synthetic diamonds in that they are “hatched from a sliver of a natural, mined diamond as the substrate.”
The news has prompted major investments from diverse individuals. Business Insider states:

Diamond Foundry has closed three rounds of financing from individuals including actor Leonardo DiCaprio, Twitter/Medium founder Evan Williams, Zynga founder Mark Pincus, One Kings Lane cofounder Alison Pincus, SUN Microsystems founder Andreas Bechtolsheim, Facebook cofounder Andrew McCollum, former Facebook COO Owen van Natta, Marc Benioff’s private-investment manager Mark Goldstein, Sequoia Capital’s David Spector, former eBay President Jeff Skoll, Scott Banister, Vast Ventures, Caspian VC Partners, and many others.
DiCaprio starred in the movie “Blood Diamond” and has since taken on some related activism against the industry, which has been heavily criticized for its negative environmental impact and child labor.

Click here to read the full Business Insider report.