William Adams
About William Adams
William Adams, known as will.i.am, is the founder and frontman of The Black Eyed Peas and a seven-time Grammy Award winner. Crunchbase credits the group with 31 million albums and 58 million singles sold worldwide. He has also worked with Michael Jackson, Rihanna, Usher, Nicki Minaj, Britney Spears, David Guetta and Hans Zimmer. He has been a coach on The Voice UK on BBC One, and in 2012 he sent a song to Mars with NASA's Curiosity mission.
On the technology side, he was a founding shareholder in Beats Electronics, the headphone company Apple acquired in 2014. In 2011 Intel named him director of creative innovation. In 2013 he founded i.am+, a consumer electronics company that built the dial, a smart band with an untethered phone and an AI-focused operating system called AneedA. i.am+ also made the i.am+ EPs Bluetooth headphones, and in 2016 it acquired the Israeli machine learning company Sensiya, now known as over.ai. Crunchbase lists three companies he has founded.
He is now founder and CEO of FYI (Focus Your Ideas), an AI-driven productivity and communication platform for creatives. A Fortune interview from March 2025 describes him as its founder and CEO. He is also behind the i.am.angel Foundation, which runs STEM education programmes. Growth Capital Ventures described him as London-based in 2017.
Crunchbase lists 15 investments across 13 portfolio companies, with 0 lead investments and 2 exits (none by IPO). He appears to invest as a participant in rounds, not as a round leader.
Growth Capital Ventures reports that in 2014 he put £5m into the Series A of Music Messenger. It also reports a further £5m into Shellanoo Group and £3m into Honest Dollar, all of which it describes as early-stage companies at the time. In 2017 he acquired a reported £3.5m stake in the app-only bank Atom and became a strategic board advisor to it.
In interviews with Fortune in 2025, he said he invested in Tesla in 2006, before Elon Musk took over. He also named Pinterest and Dropbox among his better bets. He has said he turned down an offer from Airbnb's Brian Chesky to invest up to $200,000 in an early round, and he calls it his biggest investment mistake. These accounts come from his own statements. We have not checked them against a cap table.
In the Fortune interview, will.i.am named OpenAI and Anthropic among his better investments. Fortune says he is now focused on AI. The investment dates and amounts for those two companies are not public, so we do not list them.
Most of his AI activity is as an operator. FYI is described as a Web 3.0 messenger app for the creative community, and in a testimonial published by IBM he said FYI was expanding its work with IBM's watsonx. In January 2024 he launched "Will.i.am Presents the FYI Show" on SiriusXM. The show has an AI co-host called qd.pi, which a representative said is powered by Inflection. A representative also said each episode's digest is powered by FYI.Ai. In 2025 Fortune reported on the rollout of Raidio.FYI radios in Mercedes-Benz cars.
The reported deals suggest he backs early-stage consumer, fintech, music and creator-facing companies, and more recently AI. Growth Capital Ventures described the 2014 investments as early-stage businesses. He has worked with companies from London as well as the US, and Atom was based in Durham, England.
We found no public statement of a standard check size, a target stage or a formal thesis. The amounts above are reported figures for individual deals and should not be read as a typical cheque. A Fortune headline from March 2025 says he is looking at young founders from MIT and Stanford for his next investment. We could not read the full article, so treat that as a lead and not a stated criterion. Founders with a product tied to music, creators, wearables, communication tools or applied AI are the closest match to his public record.
- Atom Bank: UK app-only bank. A reported £3.5m stake in 2017, and he became a strategic board advisor.
- Music Messenger: music app. A reported £5m in its Series A in 2014.
- Shellanoo Group: early-stage company. A reported £5m investment around 2014.
- Honest Dollar: early-stage company. A reported £3m investment around 2014.
- Beats Electronics: headphone company. He was a founding shareholder, and Apple acquired it in 2014.
- Tesla: he says he invested in 2006.
- OpenAI and Anthropic: he named both as strong investments, with no public dates or amounts.
- Pinterest and Dropbox: he named both as strong investments, with no public dates or amounts.
- crunchbase.com/person/will-i-am
- growthcapitalventures.co.uk/insights/blog/investing-entrepreneurship-a
- fortune.com/2025/03/17/multimillionaire-musician-will-i-am-invested-ea
- fortune.com/2025/03/13/will-i-am-investment-mistake-airbnb-brian-chesk
- ibm.com/case-studies/fyi-will-i-am-client-quote
- foxnews.com/entertainment/black-eyed-peas-star-taps-ai-bot-radio-show-
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I.am%2B
- tech.yahoo.com/ai/articles/exploitative-ai-social-media-already-110010
Investing activity
William Adams has made 15 investments according to Crunchbase across 13 portfolio companies, and has seen 2 exits and founded 3 companies.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about William Adams
Does William Adams (will.i.am) angel invest in AI startups?
He has said he invested in OpenAI and Anthropic, and he now runs the AI platform FYI. Crunchbase lists 15 investments in total, and we found no public list of his AI deals.
What check size does will.i.am write?
He has not publicly stated one. Press reports put individual investments at £3m to £5m between 2014 and 2017, and he turned down an Airbnb round that allowed up to $200,000.
Does will.i.am lead rounds?
Crunchbase shows 0 lead investments out of 15. The reported deals, including the Music Messenger Series A, suggest he joins rounds and does not set terms.
What stage does will.i.am invest in?
The reported deals were early-stage companies, including a Series A and other early-stage rounds. He has not published a stage preference.
What companies has William Adams founded?
Crunchbase lists three. Publicly known ones include The Black Eyed Peas, i.am+ (2013) and FYI. He was also a founding shareholder in Beats Electronics, which Apple acquired in 2014.
How can founders reach will.i.am?
He has no public investor intake process that we could find. His X account is @iamwill, and FYI and i.am+ are the companies he operates.
Is William Adams an angel investor?
Yes. William Adams invests personally as an angel and is Founder at The Black Eyed Peas. Crunchbase counts 15 investments and 2 exits.
Where is William Adams based?
William Adams is based in London, England, United Kingdom.
How can founders reach William Adams?
Founders on Lounge can see William Adams's contact details in AI Investor Contacts (paid plans), check for a warm introduction through members who worked with them under Warm Paths, and add William Adams to their Investor Pipeline to track the conversation.