Kerry Washington Leads Investment In Wedding Marketplace Cheersy

Cheersy, a digital platform connecting engaged couples with quality day-of wedding coordinators, secured $550,000 in a pre-seed financing round led by Kerry Washington. Other angel investors and advisors include Jennifer Gilbert, Founder of Save the Date®, Elizabeth Cutler, Co-Founder of SoulCycle and Peoplehood, and Christina Tosi, Chef and founder of Milk Bar.

A digital wedding marketplace for couples

Cheersy Founder and CEO Amy Shack Egan founded Modern Rebel, a NYC-based full-service wedding planning business. After it received strong demand, she wanted to build a digital marketplace where couples could experience the unique wedding they desired with the support of an experienced coordinator trained with Cheersy’s expertise.

“It is more important than ever to be fully present for life’s big moments of celebration,” Shack Egan said in a press release. “Eighty-one percent of couples are planning their weddings themselves, and are often missing out on memory making moments while they worry about if the place cards are set correctly,”

Kerry Washington’s other investments

In February, Washington joined Equip Health, a startup that supports people with eating disorders, as an investor and advisor. She opened up about her eating disorder in her memoir Thicker Than Water. 

Kristina Saffran, Equip’s cofounder and CEO, read Washington’s book and told her co-founder (chief clinical officer Erin Parks) they needed to contact her. Saffran was looking for a celebrity to partner with to help highlight Equip’s cause. However, she did not want to reinforce the idea that eating disorders only affect thin, white women.

Last October, she invested in Spill, a Black-owned social media platform that aims to create safer spaces for historically marginalized groups, including LGBTQIA+ and people of color. Washington has been active within the platform, hosting live video sessions—referred to as “Tea Parties”—and having conversations with the Spill community about voter registration.

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