Rihanna's Savage X Fenty raises $125M with new UAE investors

An Abu Dhabi-based investment firm linked to a top security official in the United Arab Emirates said Thursday it has invested $25 million in Savage X Fenty, the lingerie company co-founded by megastar and business mogul Rihanna.

Savage X Fenty also raised new investment from the Abu Dhabi Growth Fund, owned by the Abu Dhabi government.

It comes as Rihanna’s lingerie brand this week reportedly secured $125 million in a third round of capital raised as it opens its first retail store in Las Vegas. The brand plans to open other brick-and-mortar locations in malls in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and Houston. It will showcase its range of sizes on mannequins showcasing different body types. The brand's ethos celebrates inclusivity, similar to Rihanna's makeup line that launched with a range of 40 shades of foundation for various skin colors.

In its series C this week, the lingerie brand raised new capital from New York-based LionTree, as well as other private equity firms, including one backed by LVMH’s Bernard Arnault and a venture capital firm co-founded by Jay-Z, who was president of Def Jam when Rihanna was signed to the label in 2005.

The Abu Dhabi-based Multiply Group announced its $25 million investment in a disclosure to Abu Dhabi’s Securities Exchange on Thursday, where the company has been listed since early December of 2021.

According to Forbes, this brings total venture capital funding to $310 million for the lingerie brand, which Robyn “Rihanna” Fenty debuted in 2018. Forbes estimates Rihanna's net worth at $1.7 billion, with makeup line Fenty Beauty worth about $1.4 billion and the remaining $270 million rooted in the the lingerie brand, as well as her music career.

Rihanna, who is from the eastern Caribbean island of Barbados, shot to fame with a series of hits, including " “Umbrella.” She has not produced an album since 2016, focusing instead on her business ventures.

Her Fenty Beauty line is popular among Gulf Arab women, who spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually on makeup.

Multiply Group is a tech-focused investment firm and a subsidiary of International Holding Company, whose chairman is Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan. That company's biggest shareholders are Royal Group, whose chairman is also Sheikh Tahnoon, and a subsidiary of Royal Group. Combined, the two firms own around 74% of International Holding Company. More than 90% of Royal Group's ownership is Emirati nationals, according to publicly available data.

Sheikh Tahnoon is the United Arab Emirates' national security advisor and a brother to Abu Dhabi's day-to-day ruler and powerful crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed. The two are sons of the young nation's late founding father, Sheikh Zayed.