American pop singer and fashion brand founder Robyn Rihanna Fenty is negotiating with banks including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to seek an IPO for its underwear brand Savage X Fenty. At that time, the valuation of the brand will reach 3 billion dollars. In front of this news, some of her fans even joked: "Don't expect Rihanna’s new album. She is busy being a businesswoman."

    Last August, Rihanna topped the Forbes list of the world's richest female singers with $1.7 billion. The 34-year-old female singer has not released a new song in the past five years, but her business is booming. Since 2014, with her keen taste of the market trend, her own influence and accurate Internet marketing business model, she has expanded her business territory step by step, from beauty to underwear, from starting her own business to cooperating with the world's luxury giants.

The first IPO valuation is nearly 3 billion dollars

    According to the media, the underwear company Savage X Fenty founded by Rihanna is discussing matters related to the initial public offering with investors including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. It will be listed as soon as this year, with a valuation of more than US $3 billion.

    Savage X Fenty was jointly established by Rihanna and Techstyle Fashion Group, a fashion platform supported by venture capital. It launched its first series in May 2018, covering a variety of underwear products such as bra, panties, corset, tulle jumpsuit, bathrobe and accessories. It separated from the platform and developed independently in 2019. According to Forbes, as of January this year, the brand's annual compound annual growth rate exceeded 150%.

    Of course, capital will not miss this promising start-up.According to CrunchBase data, Savage X Fenty has experienced three rounds of financing, with a total financing of about US $310 million. Recently, the round C financing was led by Neuberger Berman, an asset management giant, in January this year, raising US $125 million, which will be used to support physical retail and overseas expansion plans and launch new product lines.

    Previously, in February 2021, L Catterton, a private equity fund under LVMH, the world luxury giant, led the investment of US $115 million; In August 2019, Avenir Growth Capital, Sunley House Capital Management and Marcy Venture Partners of famous American rapper Jay-Z invested US $50 million.

    Although there have always been skeptical opinions that the brand is favored by the capital market more with the help of Rihanna's reputation. However, many consumers believe that the rise of Savage X Fenty should be attributed to the authenticity of the brand, that is, to prevent consumers from body shame.

    The brand takes "All shapes, All sizes" as the slogan. The sizes range from XS to 3XL, which basically takes care of consumers of all figure shapes. Most advertisements use models with less perfect shapes but closer to ordinary people. Such a diversified and inclusive brand concept, coupled with Rihanna's own celebrity effect, the brand is further popular.

    According to the famous American fashion industry newspaper Women's Wear Daily, Savage X Fenty has become one of the most successful brands in the star entrepreneurship trend in recent years. After the popularity of her beauty brand Fenty Beauty, Rihanna jointly established Savage X Fenty with fashion industry incubator Techstyles Fashion Group in 2018, and separated from it and developed independently after ending the partnership in 2019.

The beauty brand is also thriving

    Not only underwear, Rihanna's beauty brand is also thriving. In 2017, Rihanna joined in launching the beauty brand Fenty Beauty with Kendo, LVMH's beauty incubator. Within a few weeks after the launch of the brand, the sales exceeded US $100 million, which was called a revolutionary brand by the industry. Fenty Beauty was also named the best invention by Time magazine.

    In September 2019, Fenty Beauty announced its official entry into the Chinese market. At present, the number of fans of Fenty Beauty overseas flagship stores has reached 1.11 million, and the products with the highest sales are contour stick and lip glaze,

    With her thriving business, Rihanna's wealth has also risen. In August 2021, according to Forbes, Rihanna's personal wealth has reached US $1.7 billion, becoming the richest female singer in the world. Interestingly, most of Rihanna's assets do not come from her singing career, but from her makeup brand Fenty Beauty and underwear brand Savage X Fenty, of which Rihanna's 50% stake in Fenty Beauty brand has brought $1.4 billion in assets.

From ordinary people to a diva

    Rihanna has an inspirational life. Rihanna was born in Barbados, a small island country in the Caribbean, in 1988.

    Rihanna's mother is an African Guyana and is an accountant; His father, of African and Irish descent, was a clothing warehouse keeper. Rihanna is the eldest daughter of the family, with two half sisters and a half brother.

    Because of her father's alcoholism and domestic violence, Rihanna was not happy in her childhood. When she was a child, Rihanna often sold clothes at street stalls to make money, and even packed candy and took it to school to sell money. But Rihanna is often bullied on campus because of race.

    At the age of 15, she participated in a school beauty contest and won the championship with a song "Hero". Fortunately, Rihanna was favored by American record producer Evan Rogers, who was on vacation in Barbados. The producer kindly invited her to the United States for an audition and recording. In this way, Rihanna came to the United States and officially signed a contract with the record company.

    In August 2005, Rihanna's first album "Music of the Sun" was released and ranked 10th on the Billboard in the album list within a week. The first single "Pon De Replay" ranked the second place in the single list and became famous. This year, Rihanna was only 17 years old.

    According to the data, so far, Rihanna has released eight albums, sold more than 250 million albums worldwide and won nine Grammy Awards. She is one of the best-selling music artists in history. She is a successful businesswoman and a renowned artist as well.