Kim Kardashian will add a private equity firm to her business empire, partnering with Carlyle Group Inc.’s former global head of consumer, media and retail Jay Sammons to form SKYY Partners, a firm that will make both controlling and minority investments in high-growth, market-leading consumer and media companies.
Kardashian and Sammons will be co-managing partners of SKYY, with Sammons running the day-to-day operations for the company, which will be based in Boston and Los Angeles.
Kardashian told The Wall Street Journal that the company has not yet begun fundraising or made any investments but plans to before the end of the year.
Sammons announced in early August that he was leaving private equity company Carlyle, where he had worked since 2006, to start a new venture.
During his tenure there, he had a hand in investments in companies including Beats Electronics, Beautycounter and Vogue International, Bloomberg reported, as well as Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings LLC, which at the time owned six of Taylor Swift’s albums.
Kardashian’s shapewear label Skims doubled its valuation to $3.2 billion in January after a new $240 million financing round led by hedge fund Lone Pine Capital. She also co-owns cosmetics company KKW Beauty with Coty.
