Kim Kardashian launches private equity firm

A recommendation from Kim Kardashian, who has 329 million followers on Instagram, can make or break a business. With her large social media following, successful experience in previous businesses and the help of a partner who is both a TV celebrity and an experienced investor, Kardashian has decided to create her own private equity firm.

The new business, called SKKY Partners, defines itself as a private equity firm focused on making both control and minority investments in sectors such as consumer products, hospitality, luxury, digital commerce and media. Private equity firms typically take a stake in a company and try to influence the company’s direction to boost sales and improve profitability.

Kim Kardashian has co-founded SKKY Partners with Jay Sammons, a former executive at the investment firm Carlyle Group, where he was in charge of the consumer sector. Both will be the managing partners. Kardashian’s mother, Kris Jenner, who is a TV personality and business investor, will be a partner.

“Together we hope to leverage our complementary expertise to build the next generation Consumer & Media private equity firm,” Kardashian wrote in a message on Instagram.

In 2019, Kardashian founded the underwear and loungewear brand Skims, which was valued at $3.2 billion in January. Prior to Skims, in 2017, Kardashian launched the makeup KKW. The beauty company Coty acquired a 20% owning interest in Skims for $200 million, putting the company’s worth at $1 billion.

Sammons, meanwhile, is also a successful executive in the investment world. His decision to invest in Beats headphones – which now have their own Kim Kardashian line – has been one of his biggest successes. More controversially was the Carlyle Group’s investment in Big Machine Records, the label singer Tayor Swift used to record her first six studio albums. The company consequently took ownership of the rights to those six albums to the outrage of Swift, who also called out the company’s manager for “incessant, manipulative bullying.”