Backtracking on 6-Months-Old AI Stance, Shaquille O’Neal’s $2,500,000 Aid Tells a Different Story

Having the full force of Big Diesel supporting a business can take it to unpredictable heights. But entrepreneur Shaquille O’Neal backs only what he believes in. However, one new startup has earned the Shaq stamp of approval in a big way. It meets his goals to empower youth and help more people. Surprisingly, the NBA legend had recently expressed his distaste for the field of AI before pushing this AI-powered program.

O’Neal joined the founders of Edsoma at a press event to talk all about its initiative. He got candid about what made him set his believes aside to help this startup advance.

Shaquille O’Neal promotes literacy through Artificial Intelligence

The Big Aristotle is known to donate or fund tablets and reading resources for youth. He’s also collaborated with Hoops for Literacy in the past. This time Shaq furthered his literacy initiatives in a big way. Kyle Walgren, the CEO of Edsoma, brought the millionaire philanthropist and investor on board to promote their edtech startup. Edsoma developed a reading, education, and communication platform for children powered by Artificial Intelligence. Its purpose-driven program wouldn’t need much convincing for Shaq to get behind it.

But Walgren didn’t want a check out of the $400 million rich NBA legend. “He didn’t ask me for money; what he asked was actually, ‘I would like you to help me get this out,'” O’Neal said at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023.

O’Neal did give it that boost. Edsoma raised $2.5 million at a post-funding $14 million valuation from individual investors. Shaq stayed mum on his own investment. But there could be a significant financial return involved too.

It started from 300 paid users and grew to 1000 and then 9000.  The numbers make the CEO and his celebrity backer confident to do a Series A round in a few months. O’Neal is also helping Edsoma expand the scope of its app. Currently, the app is targeting the kindergarten to fourth-grade age group. The next goal is to take it to the university learning level.

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Like everything Shaq attaches his name too, he has big plans for this startup. Ironically, he was averse to this field recently.

Shaq’s opinion on AI

Back in April, Shaq was on the mend after hip surgery and still at work with another ad campaign.

On the subject of memes and graphics generated by AI tools, he said, “One thing about artificial intelligence is if it comes up with a commercial that bombs, it’s going to get blamed – you are.” Simply put Shaq is not the biggest fan of AI.

When it came to Edsoma, the purpose aligned with O’Neal’s. However, he didn’t actually back it till tried the app himself.

“When [Walgren] talked about it, I didn’t believe it. And Then when he showed me, I believed it,” the new convert said. Walgren would add that demonstrating the app’s utility is very convincing.

This led to Shaq’s first-ever investment in the edtech field though he’s been a strong advocate for education for years.

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