Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty lingerie tempts Aussie billionaires

Wealthy Australians are investing in a $100 million fund that is backing a new lingerie range created by pop star Rihanna.

Rihanna promotes Fenty in Paris last month.

Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes has joined a member of the billionaire Smorgon family and a host of other wealthy families and individuals to bankroll a $100 million venture capital fund backed by American rapper Jay-Z that is investing in a new lingerie range created by international pop star Rihanna.

Last year, Jay-Z and his longtime business partner Jay Brown, president of Jay-Z’s entertainment group Roc Nation, joined Silicon Valley venture capitalist Larry Marcus to form the Marcy Venture Partners Fund, named after the public housing complex where Jay-Z grew up in Brooklyn, New York.

The Australian understands that one-third of the capital in MVPF has come from Australia through former Ellerston Capital chief executive Glenn Poswell’s investment firm Gannet Capital and other family investment groups, including Mr Cannon-Brookes’s Grok Ventures and the Victor Smorgon Group run by Peter Edwards.

Another Australian investor in MVPF is said to be Hezi Leibovich, co-founder of online retailing firm Catch Group, which was previously backed by billionaire James Packer.

Now MVPF is becoming one of the first third-party backers to invest a multi-million-dollar sum in Rihanna’s luxury lingerie brand Savage X Fenty that was launched last year.

The brand is a partnership with Techstyle Fashion Group, the company behind American actress Kate Hudson’s Fabletics, JustFab and ShoeDazzle.

Rihanna took to Instagram over the weekend to model herself in new lingerie for the label, which debuted at a pop-up shop in Paris on May 24 and went online on May 29.

Her fashion brand Fenty, launched under luxury fashion group LVMH, was announced late last month.

There is speculation some of the Australian investors in MVPF are planning to invest directly in Savage X Fenty through a new investment vehicle being created by Mr Poswell, as well as through MVPF.

Mr Poswell declined to comment about MVPF or its potential new investments yesterday.

In April, MVPF made its first investment when it backed a $US8 million ($11.5m) Series A funding round for US start-up Hungry, which connects independent chefs with more than 400 office and event catering managers online in Washington DC and Philadelphia and wants to expand further into America.

Founded by Jay-Z in 2013, Roc Nation includes a record label and a sports management division. The latter represents athletes across major American leagues, including the NFL, NBA and Major League baseball.

Jay-Z, whose partner is international pop-singer Beyonce, is also an investor in Uber, part-owner of music streaming service Tidal and owns luxury champagne brand Armand de Brignac.

Glenn Poswell, who is on the investment advisory committee of MVFP, is also the founder of the Level 18 equity hedge fund, managed by Centennial Asset Management with ex-Wilson Asset Management’s Matthew Kidman and former Ellerston Capital executive Gary Joffe.

Level 18 is named after the floor that houses the Victor Smorgon family operation in an office tower in Melbourne suburb South Yarra. It was seeded by the Victor Smorgon Group.

Level 18 was the fund that built a cornerstone shareholding in financial services giant AMP in 2014 with a view to partnering with Chris Corrigan to engineer a shake-up of the company’s strategy and board.

It also shook up the board of retailer Noni B after taking a strategic stake in the company.

Alongside MVFP, Mr Cannon-Brookes has a series of private investments via his Grok Ventures, including in the autonomous vehicle company Zoox, education company Spriggy and home energy fintech Brighte.