Marcy Venture Partners, a venture firm founded in 2018 by Shawn Carter, Jay-Z, former CEO of Roc Nation, and former Walden VC general partners Larry Marcus, has announced that it has closed its second fund, with $325 million capital commitments. Marcus, cofounder, said that the team has now managed $600 million of assets, having closed its first fund with $85million.
According to the firm, it has a positive culture, culture, and investment strategy that focuses on consumers. It claims that most of its portfolio companies were founded by women or people of colour and are managed or run by them.
The trio have written checks to at most 21 companies, including fashion, skin care and food companies. Among the many bets are Rihanna's lingerie brand Savage X Fenty, the sneaker market StockX, Therabody which makes percussion therapy tools, Simulate which makes plant-based and chicken-flavored nuggets, and Partake Foods, an allergen-free cookie manufacturer.
Carter and his company also started investing in crypto projects. They supported Bitski, a San Francisco-based startup NFT market, earlier this year and invested more recently in spatial LABS, a tech incubator that focuses primarily on the metaverse as well as blockchain-based products.
According to an April SEC filing, the firm was originally targeting $200 million for its newest fund. It is located in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Carter has many other business interests. He also owns half of Armand de Brignac champagne, better known as Ace of Spades. He purchased the label in 2014 for an undisclosed amount. In February 2015, Moet Hennessy acquired half of the company at terms not disclosed.
Tidal was also owned by Carter. He bought the streaming music service in 2015, renamed it (and reshaped) and sold a large portion of the company to Square for $297m in stock and cash back in March. Last December, Carter launched Monogram, a brand of cannabis. He also founded Roc Nation, a sprawling entertainment company, now aged 13 years. It has its roots in everything, from labels, publishing, touring and television to artist and athlete management.
