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 has announced the closing of its second fund, which raised $325 million. According to co-founder Marcus, the team now manages $600 million in assets after closing its first fund with $85 million. The firm claims to have a “consumer, cultural, and positive effect” investing strategy and claims that the majority of its current portfolio companies are established or run by women or people of color.
To date, the three have issued checks to at least 21 businesses, including those in fashion, beauty care, and cuisine. Rihanna’s lingerie line Savage X Fenty, the sneaker marketplace StockX, Therabody, which creates percussion treatment equipment, Simulate, which makes plant-based chicken-flavored nuggets, and Partake Foods, an allergen-free cookie brand, are among the numerous bets.
Carter and his team have also begun investing in crypto initiatives, previously sponsoring Bitski, a San Francisco-based startup NFT marketplace, and more recently investing in spatial LABS (sLABS), a tech incubator focused on the metaverse and blockchain-based goods.
According to an SEC filing from April, the San Francisco and Los Angeles-based firm, named after the Marcy Projects in Brooklyn, where Carter grew up, was initially targeting $200 million for the new fund. Of course, the firm is just one of Carter’s many business ventures. For example, he owns half of the Armand de Brignac champagne brand, often known as Ace of Spades. He bought the label for an undisclosed cost in 2014, and Moet Hennessy bought half of it for an undisclosed sum in February of this year.
Carter also controlled Tidal, a streaming music business that he bought in 2015 and rebranded (and altered) before selling a “substantial portion” of the company to Square for $297 million in cash and stock in March. Last December, he founded Monogram, a cannabis company. In addition, of course, he mostly has known for founding Roc Nation, a now 13-year-old entertainment conglomerate with interests ranging from artist and athlete management to labels, publishing, touring, cinema, and television, among other things.
