Rihanna Is Now Officially A Billionaire
How the singer became the richest female musician on the planet. Trace: It was not from undertaking.
by Madeline Berg
When Robyn Fenty, acknowledged to the world as Rihanna, launched Fenty Beauty in 2017, she sought to generate a cosmetics firm that produced “women almost everywhere (truly feel) included.” A potentially unintended consequence: The magnificence line has aided her enter one particular of the world’s most distinctive ranks: Billionaire.
Rihanna is now really worth $1.7 billion, Forbes estimates—making her the wealthiest woman musician in the earth and second only to Oprah Winfrey as the richest woman entertainer. But it’s not her new music that’s created her so rich. The bulk of her fortune (an approximated $1.4 billion) will come from the benefit of Fenty Splendor, of which Forbes can now validate she owns 50%. Significantly of the rest lies in her stake in her lingerie business, Savage x Fenty, worthy of an approximated $270 million, and her earnings from her profession as a chart-topping musician and actress.
Although Barbados-born Rihanna is not the only movie star to capitalize on her social media presence—she has 101 million followers on Instagram and 102.5 million on Twitter—to build a natural beauty manufacturer, she is the most prosperous natural beauty entrepreneur to do so. Fenty Natural beauty, which is a 50-50 joint venture with French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH (run by Bernard Arnault, the world’s second-richest individual), introduced in 2017 with the target of inclusivity. Its solutions arrive in a varied range of colors—foundation is available in 50 shades, including tougher-to-uncover darker shades for females of color—and are modeled in its marketing by an similarly numerous team of people today.
Obtainable on-line and at Sephora stores, which are also owned by LVMH, the goods were an fast good results. By 2018, its first full calendar year, the line was bringing in much more than $550 million in once-a-year revenues, in accordance to LVMH, beating out other celebrity-founded brands like Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics, Kim Kardashian West’s KKW Magnificence and Jessica Alba’s Genuine Co.
“A whole lot of ladies felt there have been no lines out there that catered to their pores and skin tone. It was light-weight, medium, medium dim, darkish,” claims Shannon Coyne, cofounder of purchaser products consultancy Bluestock Advisors. “We all know which is not reality. She was just one of the first manufacturers that arrived out and reported, ‘I want to discuss to all of individuals different persons.’”
A$AP Rocky and Rihanna are witnessed filming a tunes online video in the Bronx on July 11, 2021.
Raymond Hall/GC Photographs
Whilst cosmetics sales slowed all through the pandemic, attractiveness companies are worthy of as substantially as ever. Shares of larger elegance conglomerates like Estée Lauder and L’Oréal have bounced again, achieving all-time highs and investing at spectacular 7.5 (or far more) periods once-a-year revenues. Meanwhile, impartial brands like Beautycounter and Charlotte Tilbury inked discounts with financial investment corporations earlier this 12 months at billion-dollar valuations.
That is fantastic information for Rihanna. Thanks to the spectacular multiples at which attractiveness companies are buying and selling, Fenty Magnificence is worth a conservative $2.8 billion, Forbes estimates. And all indicators issue to the organization continuing to expand. In its annual report for 2020, LVMH stated Fenty Skin, which released very last 12 months, was off to a “very promising start” and “generated unprecedented excitement,” and that Fenty Attractiveness “managed its appeal as a leading makeup brand.”
Fenty Attractiveness isn’t Rihanna’s only billion-dollar brand name. In February her lingerie line Savage x Fenty raised $115 million in funding at a $1 billion valuation. The corporation, which introduced in 2018 as a joint venture with TechStyle Trend Team, counts blue-chip buyers like Jay-Z’s Marcy Undertaking Companions and non-public equity agency L. Catterton (in which Bernard Arnault is an investor) as shareholders. Rihanna maintains a 30% ownership stake, Forbes estimates. The most current spherical of funding will reportedly be used for consumer acquisition and retail growth.
Not that anything Rihanna touches turns to gold. In February, LVMH and Rihanna confirmed in a assertion to Forbes that they experienced shut down their other enterprise, a large-finish manner and add-ons home also termed Fenty. Launched in 2019, Fenty sought to lengthen Rihanna’s manufacturer of inclusivity and offer you kinds in a range of dimensions. But like many luxury style brand names, the superior-priced line suffered throughout the pandemic, releasing its very last assortment in November 2020.
The only grievance some fans may well have about her profession as a vogue and splendor mogul? It keeps her hectic. The singer, who utilized to launch an album just about each and every year, has not unveiled a new album given that 2016’s Anti.
From a economic perspective, that may possibly be just great: “She is building a model exterior of herself. It is not just about Rihanna,” states guide Coyne. “Even if you don’t like her tunes, she’s established a serious fashion in the fashion and beauty room.”
Linked Articles or blog posts
