Recap: Jay-Z's Backed Life Insurance Start-Up, Ethos, Raises 35 Million

Ethos, the startup marketing a new life insurance product for people who probably haven’t really thought about life insurance, may have 99 startup problems but new capital ain’t one.

The company just announced that it raised $35 million in a new round of financing.

That’s a pretty big number for a company in the normally staid life insurance world, but considering that the company’s previous round of $11.5 million came from the family offices and investment firms of Hollywood and sports celebrities like Will Smith’s Smith Family Circle; Robert Downey Jr.’s Downey Ventures; Kevin Durant’s Durant Company; Arrive, and the Roc Nation investment company from Jay Z.

The new funding was led by Accel Partners, with new investor GV (the investment firm formerly known as Google Ventures) also participating alongside return investors Sequoia Capital and Arrive.

Ethos makes its money by providing an online and mobile sales channel for insurance policies created by the Lincoln, Neb.-based life insurance company, Assurity Life.

Rather than selling permanent life insurance, which requires users to pay in perpetuity and which payers often let lapse or opt-out over time for a loss, Ethos bills itself as a more equitable insurance provider by only offering term life insurance, which policy-holders only have to pay for a fixed period of time.

The term life insurance policies are less expensive than permanent life insurance offerings. Given how little insight customers have into the process other insurance providers, which pay their salespeople on commission, have incentives to pitch the more expensive policies that customers often let lapse. It’s a win-win for the insurer, according to company chief executive officer, Peter Colis.

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Ben Affleck's Dunkin' Commercial, RedrumSociety Announces New Show, Martha Stewart's Snoop Dogg Tattoo

Photo Credit: Pop Sugar

Ben Affleck's love of Dunkin' coffee is no secret, and it seems like he's passed his affection for the company to his wife, Jennifer Lopez, as the two recently starred in a hilarious Super Bowl commercial for the brand. On Feb. 12, Affleck's favorite coffee chain dropped their big-game ad, the same day as the NFL championship, with the actor fully embracing his newest gig as an honorary employee working the drive-through. And if you thought the skit-level commercial itself was funny, you'll love Affleck's comical outtakes.

The bonus footage, also released by Dunkin' on the day of the 2023 Super Bowl, features Affleck's funny behind-the-counter antics, with him doing everything from messing with patrons' orders to surprising them at the window.

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Zach Cohen (Lead Singer of RedrumSociety) started playing the guitar when he was 14 and he immediately started writing songs. He was inspired to begin writing by Bob Dylan’s song “Maggie’s Farm.” He also draws inspiration from Hank Williams Sr., Lou Reed, Dion, Parliament, Funkadelic, and Robert Johnson.

Today, RedrumSociety is made up of frontman Zach Cohen, on guitar and vocals, Andrew Platt on keyboards and vocals, Sean Chesal on drums and vocals, and Ruddy Simon on bass. The band is currently independent and works to help people have feelings of comradery and togetherness. They want their music to give the feeling that they share the same feelings with their audience.

Be sure to follow them on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Spotify, and Twitter.

Photo Credit: Pop Sugar

Of course, searches for "Martha Stewart tattoo," "Martha Stewart Snoop Dogg tattoo," "did Martha get a tattoo," and any other variation of the phrase all skyrocketed as a result. The answer to the questions that everyone's been asking? No, Stewart did not tattoo Snoop Dogg's face onto her arm. In fact, Stewart has no publicly known tattoos. Though the artist who did the faux ink, Scott Campbell, didn't reveal how he achieved the look, fake tattoos are incredibly common, especially in the TV and film industry.

To get the look, special-effects artists typically get involved to make sure sizing and placement are correct. Then, designs are usually printed onto a special paper that is applied to the skin — similar to the stick-on tattoos you would get out of a candy machine as a kid. "When we put them on, [actors] can actually wear them for a couple of days if they wanted to and not have any problems with anything washing off," makeup artist Heike Merker previously told POPSUGAR.

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Yung Miami & Diddy Attend Church Together

Yung Miami says that her relationship with Diddy is grounded in spirituality, as the City Girl reveals that she’s accompanied the rap mogul to church and that the two regularly pray together. During an appearance at the season two premier of BMF, the Sunshine State rep delved into her and Diddy connecting through Christianity and their devotion to a higher power.

“We go to church,” the 28 year-old told PEOPLE. “He takes me to church. We pray together. We put God first, for real. We pray, talk to God, and go to church. I can talk to him about anything.”

The “Act Up” rapper’s whirlwind romance with the 53 year-old has been gaining heavy attention since it was first reported in June 2021. The birth of Diddy’s daughter, Love Sean Combs, last year caused many to question Yung Miami’s role in his life, which she and the mogul quickly addressed in separate statements.

However, despite public speculation regarding their romantic arrangement, the Caresha Please host appears to be smitten with Diddy, admitting that she’s never felt a love like this before. “He’s a man. He’s a grown man,” the artist, born Caresha Romeka Brownlee, says before praising his communication skills. “He’s very honest. He’s upfront about everything, ain’t no secrets with him. Nothing in my face, everything in one. I can talk to him about it.”

Yung Miami is set to appear in the second season of BMF, which premiered on Friday (Jan. 6) on Starz. The rapper and Diddy were recently spotted celebrating the New Year together.

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Nick Cannon Becomes A Father Again

Cannon first became a parent in 2011, when he had twins Monroe and Moroccan, now 11, with his then-wife, Mariah Carey. But after the couple's divorce was finalized in 2016, Cannon quickly began having more children.

Along with his twins with Carey and his new baby with Scott, the entertainment mogul is now the father to Golden Sagon, 5, Powerful Queen, 2, and Rise Messiah, 4 months, with Brittany Bell; twins Zion Mixolydian and Zillion Heir, 18 months, and Beautiful Zeppelin, 1 month, the radio personality Abby De La Rosa; Legendary Love, 6 months, with Bre Tiesi; and Onyx Ice Cole, 3 months, with LaNisha Cole. 

Halo Marie Cannon is the actor, musician, and television host's second child with the model Alyssa Scott; the couple lost their 5-month-old son, Zen, to a brain tumor in December 2021. 

It's been a whirlwind year for Cannon, who had three other children, Legendary Love, Onyx Ice Cole, and Beautiful Zeppelin, in June, September, and November, respectively. He now shares children with six women.

Shows like "19 Kids and Counting" — which follows Jim and Michelle Duggar, devout Baptists whose faith dictates that they avoid birth control — have drawn attention to the question of how many kids is too many. But unlike the Duggars, Cannon's motives — as well as those of his children's mothers, none of whom appears to be in a committed relationship with Cannon — remain unclear.

Can Cannon be an effective father to so many children across so many different households? The answer, some experts said, depends on how one defines the term "effective." 

"Even within one relationship, within one couple, children themselves can have different needs, and so parenting them is going to look different for each child," said Dr. Paula Powe, a board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist and assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. "Doing it 12 different times effectively is going to be a very big challenge."

"He's a celebrity that's doing it, and he's in the public eye," said the clinical psychologist Adolph Brown, the cohost of ABC's parenting show "The Parent Test." "In the circles that I'm in, people are curious to know what's driving him."

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Ex-NYU Director Charged with Blowing $3 Mil In State Funds

An ex-director of finance at New York University has been put on leave from her new job at Yale, after being indicted Monday for embezzling millions in funding for the Manhattan school on personal expenses - including an $80,000 swimming pool.

Over the course of six years, prosecutors say that 57-year-old Cindy Tappe used her senior role at the university to funnel more than $3.4million in grant money intended to fund minority- and women-owned businesses into shell companies she created.

Tappe - who left her gig as director of finance in 2018 when her alleged scheme was uncovered - has since started work as an operations manager at the Yale's School of Medicine, but was suspended Monday after staffers learned of the charges.

Appearing handcuffed in court, Tappe pleaded not guilty to using the stolen money to fund what prosecutors labeled a 'lavish lifestyle', with at at least $660,000 in renovations to her sprawling Connecticuthome, and the aforementioned pool. 

Billed as having 'excellence in the Comprehensive knowledge of financial and grants and has effective leadership and team-building skills' on the Yale website, Tappe faces six counts of money laundering, grand larceny, and fraud for the alleged six-year scheme, and was released Monday without bail. 

A spokesperson for Yale  - situated in New Haven, not far from Tappe's two-acre, multimillion-dollar property in Westport - confirmed Tuesday that 'Ms. Tappe has been placed on leave,' but would not specify whether that leave was paid or not.

The elite school - which employed Tappe as an operations manager in 2018 despite staffers at NYU at that point uncovering her alleged misdeeds - insisted in a statement Tuesday that Tappe was vetted before being hired.