Marcy Venture Partners led the $70 million round for Singer Rihanna’s lingerie line Savage X Fenty.

Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, hip-hop’s first billionaire, co-founded venture capital firm Marcy Venture Partners along with Jay Brown and Larry Marcus. The firm raised $85 million for its first fund. (Crunchbase).

Marcy Venture Partners’ filing with the SEC shows that the firm is based out of San Francisco and was founded in 2018. The fund is named after Marcy Houses, the Brooklyn project where Jay-Z grew up.

Apart from the three general partners above, there are 54 investors in the fund, according to Forbes.

Marcy VC investments

According to Crunchbase, cited by Forbes, the firm has already kicked off investing the fund. Its mission is to build game-changing consumer businesses and mass-market brands that resonate with culture across products and services, media and technology.

Its first investment was in Hungry Marketplace’s $8 million Series A in April 2019.

Jay-Z led Marcy also led a $70 million round for singer Rihanna’s (pictured above) lingerie line Savage X Fenty.

In October 2019, Marcy invested in electric mobility startup Wheels.

“We lead or co-invest in companies that have meaningful brand values, high customer joy driven by an outstanding product, demonstrated growth and clear catalysts for the next level of scale,” Marcy says on its website.

“Hollywood angels”: Celebs adding VC to entertainment skills

Entertainer-investor Ashton Kutcher is a trail-blazer among the rising number of stars adding venture capital to their entertainment businesses. He turned a $30 million fund into a quarter-billion in just six years – the achievement landing him on the Forbes cover in 2016.

Jay-Z has company in this trend: Savvy entertainer-VCs include Nas, Diddy, Snoop Dogg and Chamillionaire.

The Hollywood angels are not just about music or films. Even sports stars figure.

Here’s a list of “Hollywood angels” providing finance to startups:

1. Jay-Z
2. Bono
3. Snoop Dogg
4. Will Smith
5. Ryan Howard
6. Jared Leto
7. Serena Williams
8. Kevin Durant
9. Carmelo Anthony
10. Joe Montana
11. Nasir Jones (Nas)
12. Ashton Kutcher

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