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Kim Kardashian and Carlyle’s former partner Inc.
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They are starting a new private equity firm focused on investing in and building consumer and media businesses.
Ms. Kardashian is teaming up with Jay Sammons, who ran consumer investing at Carlyle, to launch SKKY Partners, he said in a separate interview. SKKY invests in consumer products, hospitality, luxury, digital commerce and media as well as consumer-media and entertainment businesses.
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Known to many from her family show “The Kardashians” and its predecessor, “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” Ms. Kardashian has been growing her own business empire in recent years. In the year Skims, an underwear and apparel business launched in 2019, was recently valued at $3.2 billion. This year she launched a skin care line SKKN BY KIM, a collection of nine products.
Mr Sammons, known for investing in hot brands such as Beats By Dre and streetwear brand Supreme, left Carlyle at the end of July after more than 16 years at the firm. He said he would continue to make the same investments as he did at Carlyle.
Mr Sammons approached Ms Kardashian and her mother Kris Jenner, who he said he had been in touch with for years, about starting the firm earlier this year. Ms. Jenner, who serves as her son’s administrator and oversees the family businesses, will join SKKY as a partner, Mr. Sammos said.
Jay Sammons, a former Carlyle partner, will run the day-to-day operations of the new firm.
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Joshua Scott
SKKY plans to make both controlling and minority investments in companies. Ms Kardashian said the idea of working closely with entrepreneurs to help them grow their companies attracted her to the idea of starting SKKY. She said she brings experience from her own businesses as she works to help portfolio companies thrive.
“The fun part is sitting down with these founders and finding out what their dreams are,” Ms. Kardashian said. “I want to support this, not to change who they are in their DNA, but to support them and take them to another level.”
SKKY has not made any investments yet, but plans to make its first before the end of the year, Ms. Kardashian said. The company’s founders have yet to start fundraising, but plan to do so soon from institutional investors. Mr. Sammons and Ms. Kardashian declined to provide details on the expected amount of the fund.
They run the day-to-day operations of the firm based in Boston, where the former Carlyle investor lives, and Los Angeles, where Ms Kardashian lives.
Mr. Sammons, who has spent two decades in the private equity industry, joining Ms. Kardashian will allow the couple to leverage their complementary skill sets: for him, the finance and investment side and for her, the ability to expand. Companies with the help of her global reach and social impact.
“It’s a very different approach to building businesses as true entrepreneurs themselves,” Mr. Sammons said of Ms. Kardashian and Ms. Jenner.
Write Laura Cooper at laura.cooper@wsj.com
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