American pop star Lady Gaga has reportedly invested in a new start-up social networking service called Backplane, which is being funded by venture firm Tomorrow Ventures founded by Google chairman Eric Schmidt.
Backplane has raised over $1m in venture funding, according to a report by The New York Times.
25-year-old Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, who is popularly known as Lady Gaga owns 20% of Backplane. Her manager Troy Carter is a co-founder.
The idea for the new service was born last year after Apple CEO Steve Jobs sought Lady Gaga’s feedback for Ping – Apple’s music social network. Though Carter and Lady Gaga were pleased with Jobs’ overall vision of the service, they thought the absence of integration with Facebook and Twitter was a shortcoming.
Backplane, the company which has yet to be launched, is designed to build and expand online communities around musicians and athletes. The service also integrates updates from Facebook and Twitter.
"Backplane will provide a platform and tools for communities to socialise and communicate on a more focused level," Carter told the Times.
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"We needed a more concentrated base."
Lady Gaga is one of the most social media icons of the day. Recently, she crossed the 10 million followers number on Twitter. She also has about 35 million "like" her on Facebook page and tops the Social 50.
Last month, Google chief Eric Schmidt had said that the search engine company had missed out on the social networking opportunity.
He had said, "Four years ago, I wrote memos and I did nothing about those…CEOs should take responsibility. I screwed up."
