Rihanna might be about to get a new business partner, and it’s someone who helped launch her career two decades ago. Jay-Z’s investment firm MarcyPen Capital Partners is reportedly closing in on a deal to buy LVMH’s 50 percent stake in Fenty Beauty.
Puck News broke the story on Wednesday, Sept. 30, citing a source close to the matter who said the deal should wrap up within the next three to four weeks. The financial terms haven’t been made public yet.
If it goes through, MarcyPen and Rihanna would split ownership of the cosmetics brand right down the middle. That would hand a rap mogul’s firm half of one of the biggest celebrity beauty companies ever built.
The history between these two runs deep. Jay-Z signed Rihanna to Def Jam in 2005 while he was running the label, and two years later he jumped on “Umbrella,” the song that made her a global star.
MarcyPen itself is fairly new. The firm formed in 2024 when Hov’s Marcy Venture Partners merged with Pendulum Opportunities, the outfit run by D’Rita and Robbie Robinson.
This also isn’t the first time Jay-Z’s money has landed in a Rihanna venture. Marcy Venture Partners took part in funding rounds for her Savage X Fenty lingerie line in both 2019 and 2022.
Then there’s Jay Brown. The Roc Nation executive is a MarcyPen co-founder, and he also co-founded both Fenty Beauty and Savage X Fenty, so the ties here are about as close as business relationships get.
Fenty Beauty arrived in 2017 through a partnership with Kendo Brands, the LVMH-owned beauty incubator. It made noise immediately by launching with 40 foundation shades, a move that pushed the rest of the industry to take shade range and inclusivity seriously.
The brand’s success gave Rihanna room to stretch the Fenty name into fashion and lifestyle businesses. For a lot of fans, it became the main thing she was known for during the long wait for new music.
The numbers tell a more complicated story, though. Fenty Beauty was once valued at more than $2 billion, but more recent estimates put it closer to $1 billion.
LVMH reportedly started exploring a sale of its stake last year. From the luxury giant’s side, that means stepping away from a brand that reshaped celebrity beauty, at a valuation well below where it once sat.
For MarcyPen, the lower number could mean buying into a household name at a discount. For Rihanna, it would mean sharing control with people who already know her and her business inside out.
Nobody involved has confirmed the deal publicly yet. The clock on that three to four week window is already running.
