“Planet of the Apps,” Apple’s forthcoming unscripted series, just signed another mentor: Jessica Alba.
Alba joins Gwyneth Paltrow, will.i.am and venture capitalist Gary Vaynerchuk as mentors on the reality series, while Alba, Paltrow and will.i.iam will serve as executive producers.
The show is currently looking for about 100 app developers to follow as they jockey for $10 million in funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners, the first institutional investor in a little app called Snapchat, will provide that money.
Alba might seem like a strange choice on the surface, but she does have some experience starting a business. In 2012, she founded the Honest Company, an outfit that sells consumer goods that don’t contain chemicals that are considered harmful.
“I started The Honest Company because I saw an opportunity in the market for a brand that spoke to conscious consumers and created safe and effective products for every need,” Alba said in a statement. “As a mentor on Planet of the Apps, I’m looking forward to meeting entrepreneurs looking to address a problem with an innovative solution, and to help them realize their vision. I can’t wait to see the ideas the app developers bring to the table.”
Lightspeed is also an investor in Alba’s Honest Company. The company’s $10 million funding commitment may sound like a hefty sum, but Lightspeed currently has over $4 billion at play in various ventures.
“Consumer technology has become popular culture, as our portfolio companies like Snapchat have demonstrated,” Jeremy Liew, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, said in a statement. “We’re excited to work with Apple and visionaries from the tech and entertainment space to discover and enable the next generation of apps that will also become popular culture.”
“Planet of the Apps” is a co-production of Propagate, an A&E-backed production company, and Apple. In addition to Alba, Paltrow and will.i.am, Ben Silverman and Howard T. Owens of Propagate serve as executive producers.