Marcy Venture Partners, the venture firm co-founded in 2018 by Shawn Carter (Jay-Z), former Roc Nation CEO Jay Brown and former Walden VC general partner Larry Marcus, says it has closed its second fund with $325 million in capital commitments. The team, which closed its debut fund with $85 million, is now managing $600 million in assets altogether, says co-founder Marcus.
The firm describes itself as having a “consumer, culture and positive impact” investment strategy, and it says the majority of its existing portfolio companies are founded or run by people who identify as women or people of color.
To date, the trio has written checks to at least 21 companies, including in fashion, skin care and food. Among those many bets are Rihanna’s lingerie company Savage X Fenty; the sneaker marketplace StockX; Therabody, which makes percussion therapy tools; Simulate, which makes plant-based, chicken-flavored nuggets; and an allergen-free cookie maker called Partake Foods.
Carter and company have also begun investing in crypto projects, supporting Bitski, a San Francisco-based startup NFT marketplace, earlier this year, and investing more recently in spatial LABS (sLABS), a tech incubator that focuses on the metaverse and blockchain-based products.
The San Francisco- and LA-based firm, named after the Marcy Projects in Brooklyn where Carter grew up, was initially targeting $200 million for the newest fund, per an SEC filing from April.
The firm is just one of many business interests for Carter. For example, he owns half of the champagne brand Armand de Brignac, known familiarly as Ace of Spades. He acquired the label for an undisclosed sum in 2014; in February of this year, Moet Hennessy bought half the company for terms that were not disclosed.
Carter also owned Tidal, a streaming music service that he’d bought in 2015 and renamed (and reshaped), before selling a “significant majority” of the company to the financial services giant Square for $297 million in cash and stock back in March.
He also launched Monogram, a cannabis brand, last December.
And, of course, he most famously founded Roc Nation, a now 13-year-old, sprawling entertainment company that has its tentacles in everything from artist and athlete management, to labels, publishing, touring, film and television, among other ventures.