How to become the youngest self-made woman billionaire in the US

The 34-year-old singer recently made Forbes' annual list of America's richest self-made women for the third year in a row. Her net worth is now $1.7 billion making her the wealthiest female musician in the world and second only to Oprah Winfrey as the richest female entertainer. She ranked 21st overall and she is the only billionaire under 40 on the list. She was announced the youngest self-made billionaire woman in the USA.

Let’s take it from the start Robyn Rihanna Fenty was born on February 20, 1988, in Barbados. She is the daughter of an accountant (mother) and warehouse supervisor (father). She grew up in a bungalow in Bridgetown and sold clothes with her father in a stall on the street which shaped her entrepreneurship skills from an early age. As an 11-year-old, Rihanna was an army cadet in a sub-military programme, where the later Barbadian singer-songwriter Shontelle was her drill sergeant. If she continued on this path, we may have never known of Rihanna today. 

She was discovered by American record producer Evan Rogers in her hometown, and he helped her record many demos. Rihanna's demo was heard by Jay-Z, who had recently been appointed as president and CEO of Def Jam. In early 2005, Rihanna auditioned for Def Jam and performed her future single "Pon de Replay” and Jay-Z wanted to sign her on the spot. He didn’t let Rihanna leave the building until the contract was signed and was in his office till 3 am. This has been a fruitful partnership and Rihanna has a very successful music career releasing eight studio albums, and selling over 60 million albums, which makes her one of the best-selling artists of all time. All of her albums have been certified platinum and multi-platinum in the USA. She quickly skyrocketed to icon status not just as a singer, but as an actress, model, sex symbol, designer, entrepreneur, and one of the absolutely biggest celebrities on the planet. 

Alongside her companions Jay-Z and Kanye, who are billionaires too, none of them have reached that status by just being music artists - they became billionaires most because of their business ventures, investments, and more. This isn’t different with Rihanna, the majority of her net worth is tied up in the value of her building two successful businesses Fenty Beauty and Savage x Fenty

FENTY BEAUTY 

Rihanna’s first major success was with Fenty Beauty which launched in September 2017. She sought to create a cosmetics company that made “women everywhere (feel) included”. It was developed by LVMH’s beauty incubator, Kendo, and debuted at LVMH’s Sephora subsidiary. The conglomerate invested around $35m in cash in the venture, taking a 50.01% stake. Rihanna agreed to put in $35m in “in-kind” contributions, meaning assets such as her time, effort, and name and controls the remaining 49.99%. Rihanna had the benefit of the technical expertise and financial backing of LVMH and launched with an impressive 40-shade foundation range, which was such a hit that it made $100m in sales within its first month and more than $550m million in annual revenue after its first year - mindblowing numbers!

Forbes estimates Fenty Beauty’s value at a “conservative $2.8 billion,” thanks to the impressive multiples at which beauty companies are trading, and since Rihanna's equity is just shy of 50%, that amounts to about $1.4 billion for her. Fenty makes more money than other celebrity-founded beauty brands such as Kylie Jenner's Kylie Cosmetics, Kim Kardashian's KKW Beauty, and Jessica Alba's Honest Company. Well done to Rihanna

SAVAGE X FENTY 

Fenty Beauty isn’t Rihanna’s only billion-dollar brand. In February her lingerie line Savage x Fenty raised $115 million in funding at a $1 billion valuation. The company, which launched in 2018 as a joint venture with TechStyle Fashion Group, counts blue-chip investors like Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners and private equity firm L. Catterton (in which Bernard Arnault is an investor) as shareholders. Rihanna maintains a 30% ownership stake in this venture and adds $300m to her net worth.  

Back in March, Bloomberg reported that Savage X Fenty lingerie company was working with advisors on an initial public offering that could value the firm at $3bn or more, this new raise could take Rihanna’s net worth to over $2bn 

OTHER VENTURES

It’s estimated Rihanna takes home between $40- $70m in any given year and has millions tied up in a fleet of fancy homes, including a $13.75m mansion she bought in Beverly Hills back in December 2020, a condo in Century City, California, worth $5.2m, a compound composed of two neighboring properties in Beverly Hills, California for which she reportedly paid a total of $23.8m a $6.8m home in the Hollywood Hills, a high-rise in Los Angeles' Wilshire Corridor, a home in her native Barbados and properties in the UK, where she reportedly spends most of her time now. 

Rihanna has received many endorsement deals during her career and also ventured into acting In 2011, Rihanna became the face of Nivea and Vita Coco. Her first television program, Styled to Rock, premiered in the UK in August 2012 on Sky Living. In the 10-week series, Rihanna, Nicola Roberts, Lysa Cooper, and Henry Holland assist up-and-coming British designers with their clothing lines. Rihanna during the years has also been in the following TV shows and films including Annie, Home, This Is The End, Bring It On: All Or Nothing, Battleship, Valerian, and Ocean's 8. In 2013, Rihanna collaborated with MAC Cosmetics and released her own summer, fall, and holiday lines of makeup called "RiRi hearts MAC", which was the inspiration for her to start Fenty Beauty. 

Early in her career, Rihanna made clear her interest in fashion and desire to work in the clothing design industry. Regarding this, she said, "Fashion has always been my defense mechanism". In November 2011, Rihanna announced her first fashion venture with Armani. In February 2013, Rihanna presented her first women's fashion collection at London Fashion Week for British brand River Island, collaborating with her personal stylist Adam Selman. They published three more collections for the brand. Rihanna then collaborated with numerous fashion houses including Dior, Stance, and Manolo Blahnik. In March 2015, Rihanna was chosen as the new face of Dior; making her the first black woman to be the face of the brand. In 2014, Rihanna became the creative director of the fashion sportswear Puma, overseeing the brand's women's line which will include collaborations in apparel and footwear. The following year, Rihanna released her first trainer with Puma and it sold out online within three hours of its pre-sale launch.

The Rihanna factor

It's hard to discount the star power of Rihanna in making Fenty a business phenomenon.

While many fans have been waiting eagerly since 2016 for new music, a quick look at her Instagram page with 103 million followers shows more Fenty than music. As you can see from her career in music, and sponsorship deals. Creating brands like Fenty Beauty, and Savage X Fenty was always on the cards and it seems to me that she was using those opportunities to learn, sharpen her skills and understand how to build and scale brands in beauty and fashion world. Testament to her as a business leader Bernard Arnault, LVMH’s chairman and chief executive, with an estimated $149bn fortune, said: “Everyone knows Rihanna as a wonderful singer, but through our partnership at Fenty Beauty, I discovered a true entrepreneur, a real CEO, and a terrific leader.” I see Rihanna going on to create more successful ventures, she recently launched Fenty Skin, with early numbers saying this is going to become a phenomenal success which may mean she may never release music again 🥲