Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty Secures $125 Million to Continue Growth
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Rihanna’s lingerie brand keeps gaining traction, this time buoyed by an extra $125 million.
On Wednesday, Savage x Fenty confirmed that it has secured the additional money in its latest round of funding, led by investment firm Neuberger Berman. That’s on top of the $115 million Series B round in early 2021, which was led by private equity firm L Catterton, which is backed by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
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Savage — which Rihanna co-created in 2018 with TechStyles Fashion Group, the same firm that launched Kate Hudson’s Fabletics — confirmed that additional investors include Avenir, Sunley House Capital, Advent International, Jay Z’s Marcy Venture Partners, LionTree, Abu Dhabi Growth Fund and Multiply Group, bringing the lingerie start-up’s total funding to $310 million to date.
Representatives from Savage would not respond to requests for comments. But Christiane Pendarvis, co-president and chief merchant at Savage, said during ICR 2022, the virtual retail conference earlier this month, that additional funds will be used to open more stores, expand internationally and add to the assortment with products such as loungewear, swimwear, shapewear, home and unisex underwear and other categories. (Rumors were circulating in December 2020 that Rihanna and her team were courting potential investors to the tune of an additional $100 million in an effort to expand the Savage x Fenty business with activewear.)
“These are things that we’re looking for on our road map to help us drive growth in the next several years,” Pendarvis said during this month’s conference. “And then there are additional reaches [in other countries around the world] that we just have not tapped into yet, at all, which is really expanding into the balance of Eastern Europe, as well as China. When you think about the opportunity behind retail and what that’s going to open up for us, as well as category expansion opportunity, as well as geography expansion opportunity, that pathway is very, very clear for us to continue to deliver very, very strong growth over the next several years. So the future looks savage and we are just getting started.”
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The news comes just days after SavageX, which spun off of TechStyles to become its own firm in 2019, opened its first brick-and-mortar location in Las Vegas. Savage plans to open five stores in total this year, the second opening in Culver City, Calif. on Feb. 12. Other locations include Houston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Pendarvis said the company picked its initial store locations based on places that already had a high density of existing VIP subscription members.
The privately-owned firm has been tight-lipped about annual revenues. But representatives from Savage said the business has had a revenue compound annual growth rate of 150 percent each year.
The men and women’s innerwear business also continues to grow, thanks to Rihanna’s star power and her promise to deliver a bra and underwear brand for all body types.
The third installment of Rihanna’s much watched fashion show, Savage x Fenty Vol. 3 — which aired on Amazon Prime in September — featured models of various shapes, sizes, ages and skin tones. It also included pregnant women, models with physical disabilities and men wearing innerwear.
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