The diva of the American music scene, Rihanna is also going to the IPO to ring the bell.
American pop diva and fashion brand founder Robyn Rihanna Fenty is in talks with banks including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to seek an IPO for its lingerie brand, Sage X Fenty. By then, the brand will be valued at $3 billion, or nearly 19 billion yuan. In this regard, some netizens joked: "Don't expect Rihanna to release new songs, she is busy being a female boss." ”
Last August, Rihanna topped forebes' list of the world's richest female singers with a net worth of $1.7 billion (more than 10 billion yuan).
The 34-year-old singer has not released a new song in the past five years, but the "side business" business is doing well. Since 2014, with her keen control of the market and trends, her own influence and accurate Internet marketing business model, she has expanded her business territory step by step, from beauty to underwear, from independent entrepreneurship to cooperation with the world's luxury giants.
Several famous PE endorsements
The first IPO was valued at nearly $20 billion
According to China Fund News, according to foreign media quoting people familiar with the matter, Savage X Fenty, the underwear company founded by Rihanna, is discussing matters related to the initial public offering with investors including Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley, which will be listed as soon as this year and may be valued at more than $3 billion (about 19 billion yuan).
Image source: Visual China
Savage X Fenty, a joint venture between Rihanna and venture-backed fashion platform Techsty fashion group, launched its first collection in May 2018, covering a number of underwear products such as bras, jumpsuits, corsets, tulle jumpsuits, bathrobes, accessories, etc., and developed independently after ending its partnership with the platform in 2019. According to Forbes, as of January this year, the brand's annual compound annual growth rate exceeded 150%.
Of course, capital will not miss this piece of "fragrant food", and funds are constantly injected.
According to Crunchbase, Sage x Fenty currently has three rounds of funding rounds, bringing the total round of financing to about $310 million. The most recent Series C round of funding, led by asset management giant Neuberger Berman, raised $125 million in January to support brick-and-mortar retail and overseas expansion plans and launch new product lines.
Previously, L Catterton, a private equity fund owned by the world luxury giant LVMH, led a $115 million investment in February 2021; in August 2019, Avenir Growth Capital, Sunley House Capital Management and Marcy Venture Partners of famous American rapper Jay-Z invested $50 million.
Although there have been voices of doubt in the market, believing that the brand is optimistic about the capital market more with the help of Rihanna's "star effect", many consumers believe that the sudden rise of Savage x Fenty should be attributed to the authenticity of the brand, that is, do not let consumers have "body shame".
The brand's slogan is "All shapes, all sizes (all sizes can find the right size)", with sizes ranging from XS to 3XL, basically catering to consumers of all shapes, and advertising mostly enables models with less perfect bodies but closer to ordinary people. Such a diverse and inclusive brand concept, coupled with Rihanna's own celebrity effect, the brand is further popular.
According to the famous American fashion industry newspaper "Women's Wear Daily", Savage x Fenty is one of the most successful brands in the celebrity entrepreneurial wave in recent years. After becoming popular with personal beauty brand Fenty Beauty, Rihanna co-founded Savage x Fenty with fashion industry incubator TechStyles Fashion Group in 2018 and broke away from it in 2019.
The beauty business is also booming
Not only underwear, Rihanna's beauty business is also very successful. In 2017, Rihanna joined forces with LVMH to launch fenty Beauty, a beauty brand, with kendo, the latter's beauty incubator. Within weeks of the brand's launch, sales exceeded $100 million and it was described by the industry as a "transformative brand." Fenty Beauty has also been named Best Invention by Time magazine.
In September 2019, beauty brand Fenty Beauty announced its official entry into the Chinese market. And in the domestic e-commerce platform opened Fenty Beauty overseas flagship store, the current number of fans of the store reached 1.11 million, the monthly sales of star products in the store reached 7,000+, the highest sales of products are contouring sticks and lip stains,
(Image source: Tmall)
The landlady's work was booming, and Rihanna's personal wealth rose with it. In August 2021, According to Forbes, Rihanna's personal net worth has reached 1.7 billion US dollars (more than 10 billion yuan), becoming the world's richest female singer.
Interestingly, most of Rihanna's net worth comes not from a singing career, but from the makeup brand Fenty Beauty she founded and lingerie brand Savage x Fenty, with Rihanna's 50% stake in the Fenty Beauty brand bringing in $1.4 billion in assets.
From ordinary people to the queen of the music world
Rihanna has an inspirational life. Rihanna was born in 1988 in Barbados, a small island nation in the Caribbean.
Rihanna's mother was an African-Guyanese and a small accountant; her father, of African and Irish descent, was a clothing warehouseman. Rihanna is the eldest daughter in the family, with two half-sisters and a half-brother below.
Due to her father's alcoholism and domestic violence, Rihanna was not very happy in her childhood, and she was also very introverted when she was a child.
Due to the family's financial difficulties, when she was a child, Rihanna often sold clothes at street stalls to earn money, and even packed small packages of candy to take to school to sell for money. But because of her race, Rihanna was also often bullied on campus.
At the age of 15, she signed up for the school's beauty pageant and won the first prize for the song "Hero". Luckily, Rihanna was spotted by Evan Rogers, an American record producer who was on vacation in Barbados, who graciously invited her to the United States for an interview for recordings. In this way, Rihanna came to the United States and officially signed a debut with a record company.
In August 2005, Rihanna's first album "Music of the Sun" was officially released, and within a week, she reached number 10 on the Billboard album charts, and her first single "Pon de Replay" dominated the singles chart runner-up and became famous. This year, Rihanna was only 17 years old.
According to the data, Rihanna has released a total of 8 albums, sold more than 250 million records worldwide, won a total of 9 Grammy Awards, and is one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
Editor| Sun Zhicheng, Wang Jiaqi, Du Bo
Proofreading | He Xiaotao
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