Marcy Venture Partners (MVP), which was co-founded by musician turned entrepreneur Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, is in talks to merge with the investment arm of Pendulum Holdings, Bloomberg reports.
As per MVP’s Crunchbase page, “the firm has a passion for building game-changing consumer businesses and mass-market brands that resonate with culture across products and services, media, and technology.”
Jay-Z, Jay Brown, and Larry Marcus founded the venture capital firm in 2018. Since its establishment, it has invested in multiple companies, including a startup that makes vegan chicken nuggets, Merit Beauty, Our Place, and Babylist, according to Bloomberg.
What is more, Jay-Z has separately invested in Swedish oat-milk maker Oatly and also joined the funding round for Impossible Fodds Inc. along with Katy Perry and Serena Williams.
The San Francisco-based firm has also invested in Rihanna’s lingerie line, a phone case maker, a crypto-security firm, and an electric bike manufacturer, among others. According to Forbes, MVP led Rihanna’s lingerie line’s $70 million funding round.
It also acquired a stake in spatial LABS (sLABS), a tech incubator founded by Iddris Sandu. Spatial LABS is a tech incubator with a focus on the metaverse and blockchain-based products, according to Billboard.
According to Complex, Marcy Venture Partners and sLABS will delve into the intersection of tech, culture, and humanity. A press release sighted by Complex in 2021 said Sandu will first launch LNQ, a “blockchain-enabled hardwire platform that “aims to make the metaverse more accessible and provide creators with decentralized tools to engage with their communities through LNQ’s proprietary, real-time processing stack.”
At the time, MVP was managing $600 million in assets. Now Bloomberg reports that a possible merger with Pendulum’s investment arm will result in more than $1 billion in combined assets. Pendulum was founded in 2019 by husband and wife Robbie and D’Rita Robinson.
Since its inception, it has invested in companies including Chinese food brand Fly by Jing Inc., Founders Table Restaurant Group, and co-working and warehouse provider Saltbox.
