Ryan Reynolds has invested in a diverse range of businesses over the last few years, from alcohol company Aviation Gin to budget mobile cell phone service Mint Mobile. Now Reynolds is investing again, this time in Nuvei, a fintech payments company based in Montreal.
“I know about as much about fintech as I did about gin or mobile a few years ago. But Nuvei is impressive,” Reynolds said in a statement about his stake on Monday. “The leadership team is exceedingly intelligent and hard-working and it’s about time a Canadian company got the type of attention American tech companies do.”
And, as he’s done for other businesses, Reynolds starred in a short promotional video for the company, which he posted on Twitter.
This I assure you… @nuvei will never ever build a rocket. pic.twitter.com/pyVdLSraW8
— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) April 17, 2023
Reynolds’ investment comes just weeks after he sold Mint Mobile to T-Mobile for $1.35 billion, a business he helped grow in part through his marketing efforts. The actor made an estimated $300 million from the deal with a 25% stake in the business. He previously sold Aviation Gin for $610 million in 2020, although his stake in that company is unknown. Reynolds’s other investments include Welsh soccer team Wrexham, and his marketing firm Maximum Effort.
Nuvei was founded 20 years ago and is active in about 200 markets. It partners with platforms like crypto exchange Binance and fantasy sports and betting platform DraftKings to offer payment services to users, and is worth nearly $6 billion, according to Bloomberg.
The company went public in Canada in 2020 and the U.S. in 2021—right when tech stocks were surging in popularity—and has taken a hit to its stock price since then. Nuvei was also the subject of scrutiny in a report by short-seller Spruce Point Capital Management at the end of 2021, which urged investors to sell their stake in the company over allegations of fraud by its top executives. Nuvei released a statement in 2021 that those claims were “misleading, false or unrelated to Nuvei’s business.”
“The allegations made against Nuvei are malicious and unfounded. I stand behind all our employees as we continue to execute on our strategy with a relentless focus on supporting our customers and making the world a local marketplace,” CEO Phil Fayer wrote.
Earlier this year, Nuvei acquired a smaller rival company, Paya, for $1.3 billion in a bid to expand its presence in the U.S. market.
Nuvei declined Fortune’s request for comment regarding Reynolds’ stake in the company as he is a private investor, but added that he will be “involved in elevating the Nuvei brand as a world class story teller.”
Reynolds and his business investments
Reynolds has often appeared in short, funny ads promoting his companies. In the case of Mint Mobile his presence made a substantial impact—after Reynolds purchased a stake in Mint Mobile in November 2019, downloads of Mint Mobile’s apps rose 34% in the subsequent 12 months, compared to the preceding 12-month period.
“I have a lot of employees whose phone bills I pay, so I decided to try it out and wound up saving money,” Reynolds told Fortune in 2021 about how he came to buy Mint Mobile, adding that he also knew the company’s cofounder.
Reynolds bought fifth-tier football club Wrexham in 2020 along with actor Rob McElhenney for a total of $2.5 million. The duo also made a behind-the-scenes documentary about owning the club called “Welcome to Wrexham.”
In an interview last month following the announcement of Mint Mobile’s sale, Reynolds told CNBC that he, along with Maximum Effort, were always on the hunt for not-so-glamorous, yet essential products that they could invest in.
Update, April 18, 2023: This article has been updated with a comment from Nuvei.
