Answer in brief
The Fenty name covers separate structures: a 50/50 Fenty Beauty joint venture with LVMH, a standalone Savage X Fenty, a paused fashion house, and a contractual Fenty x Puma role, each with its own stake and role for Rihanna.
A map of stakes and dates, not one word “founder”
This article maps out when each business carrying the Fenty name started, was paused, or changed leadership, including the gaps still open as of September 2026: who currently runs Savage X Fenty, and whether LVMH will sell its Fenty Beauty stake. The dates and figures are tied to corporate and business sources, including Forbes, LVMH, Kendo Brands, the Associated Press, Puma and business press, rather than to the blanket line that “Rihanna is a founder in beauty and fashion.”
One name, several ownership structures
Since 2014-2015, the name “Fenty” has covered not one Rihanna business but several distinct structures, each with different ownership and a different role for her. Fenty Beauty is an active joint venture with LVMH in which Rihanna owns half, and since late 2025 business press has reported that LVMH is weighing a sale of its stake. The Fenty fashion house was also a joint venture with LVMH, but its activity was paused in 2021, and no verified source states the ownership split between the parties. Savage X Fenty is a separate company with a different partner, TechStyle Fashion Group (per Forbes, as of 2021), and a roster of financial investors; who has actually run it since Hillary Super left for Victoria's Secret in September 2024 is not established in the available sources. Fenty x Puma is not a Rihanna-owned business at all but a contractual creative-director role: she held that title from 2014 to 2018, returned to it in 2023, and in May 2026 trade outlet Sole Retriever reported the partnership had ended, with the last release dated October 2025. Collapsing all these stories into the single word “founder” loses the question that matters: where Rihanna is a co-owner, where she was previously an operating executive, and where she is a contracted campaign face.
Fenty Beauty: an equal partnership with LVMH
Fenty Beauty launched on September 8, 2017 with LVMH, and Forbes confirmed the 50/50 structure in 2021, writing that it could confirm Rihanna owns half of the company, which it describes as an equal joint venture with the French conglomerate LVMH. LVMH's interest is held through its San Francisco-based unit Kendo Brands. Citing LVMH figures, Forbes reported that by the end of 2018, the brand's first full calendar year, revenue exceeded $550 million; the BBC cited a broadly similar figure of about €500 million by the end of the same year. In 2021 Forbes valued the whole venture at $2.8 billion, an estimate from the outlet itself rather than an official LVMH figure.
LVMH stake-sale talks: what is known as of September 2026
In autumn 2025, business press reported that LVMH was considering selling its half of Fenty Beauty. Cosmetics Business, citing a Reuters report from October 2025, said the conglomerate was exploring a sale and, per the outlet, working with investment bank Evercore. In June 2026 the same outlet reported that investment firm MarcyPen Capital Partners was in talks to buy LVMH's stake; per Beauty Independent, cited by Cosmetics Business, the firm was weighing several deal-financing structures and negotiating with outside investors. Neither LVMH nor Fenty Beauty has officially confirmed or denied any of this. On August 2, 2026, AllHipHop wrote that MarcyPen had previously moved in Rihanna's business orbit, but no completed deal to buy Fenty Beauty had been publicly announced at that point. As of September 15, 2026, Fenty Beauty's formal ownership structure remains 50/50, but these talks are the single biggest thing that could soon change the answer to “who owns Fenty Beauty.”
Skin, Hair and Fragrance: one Kendo Brands portfolio
Fenty Skin, Fenty Hair and Fenty Fragrance by Rihanna are often described as separate launches. Kendo Brands groups them into one portfolio with Fenty Beauty; whether Rihanna's stake is disclosed separately for each line is not disclosed in open sources. Fenty Hair went on sale in mid-June 2024. LVMH's own website lists only one line under its houses — “Fenty Beauty by Rihanna” in the Perfumes & Cosmetics section — with no separate entries for Skin, Hair or Fragrance, which is consistent with a single portfolio, though it is not direct corporate confirmation of their legal structure.
The Fenty fashion house: a paused venture with no disclosed stake
In May 2019, LVMH and Rihanna launched a separate venture: the ready-to-wear Fenty fashion house, making her the first woman to create an original house for the LVMH group and the first “woman of colour” to lead a house within the group (the BBC's original wording). The house had its own team; no available source states the ownership split between the parties. Announcing the launch, Bernard Arnault called Rihanna “a true entrepreneur, a real CEO and a terrific leader,” and Rihanna described LVMH as a partner she “couldn't find better — creatively or business-wise” (editorial translation of the original quote, “a better partner both creatively and business-wise”). In February 2021, LVMH and Rihanna confirmed to Forbes that the house's activity had ceased; LVMH's own press statement framed the decision more softly, as a pause until more favorable conditions, and said LVMH and Rihanna intended to focus on the Fenty ecosystem: cosmetics, skincare and lingerie. Forbes tied the decision to the expensive line suffering during the pandemic, noting its last collection shipped in November 2020. On LVMH's list of houses as of September 15, 2026, the Fenty fashion house does not appear — activity has never publicly resumed, though calling that a final legal termination based on one brand list alone would be premature.
Savage X Fenty: lingerie, a different partner, different money
Savage X Fenty is not an extension of Fenty Beauty or part of the LVMH/Kendo portfolio, but a separate joint venture between Rihanna and TechStyle Fashion Group, launched in 2018; this structure is confirmed by Forbes as of 2021, and no more recent official description of the partnership appears in verified sources. Per Forbes, as of 2021 Rihanna owned roughly 30% of the company, an estimate from the outlet rather than a figure confirmed by LVMH or the company itself. In January 2022, Savage X Fenty closed a $125 million Series C round led by investment firm Neuberger Berman; participants included L Catterton, Avenir Growth Capital, Sunley House Capital Management, Advent International, Marcy Venture Partners, LionTree, Abu Dhabi Growth Fund and Multiply Group, which invested $25 million through MG Wellness Holding. The brand's cumulative venture funding reached $310 million at that point. No verified source has ever named Rihanna's updated percentage after that round — an open gap. A separate note is needed on LVMH: the conglomerate is not a direct co-founder of Savage X Fenty — Forbes only writes that Bernard Arnault is an investor in the investment firm L Catterton. LVMH itself, in a February 2021 press statement, described L Catterton as an LVMH-backed investment fund that invested in Savage X Fenty, meaning LVMH itself, not only outside outlets, acknowledges the L Catterton link. Vogue Business's 2023 wording, which broadly describes Savage X Fenty's investors as including LVMH, does not contradict Forbes's version in this light so much as simplify it; the two should not be set up as more and less accurate.
From operating CEO to an unresolved leadership question
Until June 2023, Rihanna was not only a co-owner but also the operating CEO of Savage X Fenty. On June 22, 2023, Vogue Business reported a leadership change: Hillary Super would become CEO on June 26, while Rihanna moved to the role of executive chair. That reporting on Super's role stood confirmed only for 2023: on August 14, 2024, the Associated Press reported that Victoria's Secret was naming Hillary Super its new CEO effective September 9, 2024, noting that before this appointment she had held the CEO role at Savage X Fenty since June 2023. Who took over Savage X Fenty after Super's September 2024 departure, and whether Rihanna still holds the executive-chair role, is not named in any available source: that is an open gap as of September 15, 2026, not a confirmed fact about the present. In its 2023 report, Vogue Business also mentioned early-2022 press speculation about a possible Savage X Fenty IPO at a valuation of roughly $3 billion; the company declined to confirm or deny it, and no more recent reporting on the fate of those plans has appeared.
Puma and Tidal: a contractual role versus a minority stake
Two cases outside the Fenty family of brands are useful for comparison. From 2014 to 2018, Rihanna served as creative director of Puma's women's line; verified sources contain no data on any Rihanna equity stake in Puma SE. In September 2023, Puma announced the partnership's return: Rihanna again became creative director of the Fenty x Puma line, under what the company itself called a multiyear partnership. Per trade outlet Sole Retriever, dated May 20, 2026, that collaboration ended, with the line's last release out in October 2025; no official Puma statement confirming the partnership's end is publicly available, and this should be treated as trade-press reporting rather than a company-confirmed fact. At no stage of the Puma collaboration — neither 2014-2018 nor 2023-2026 — do sources describe an equity stake for Rihanna in the company: in every case, this is a contracted creative-director position. Since 2015, Rihanna has been one of the co-owners of music service Tidal, alongside roughly a dozen and a half other artists; per Billboard at the time, most such shareholders held about 3% each. In 2017, Sprint bought 33% of Tidal, and in 2021 a controlling stake passed to Square, now Block; the current size of the artist co-owners' stakes, including Rihanna's, is not disclosed in open sources. Both cases show that a celebrity's name and face on a brand does not by itself indicate an equity stake, and Puma and Tidal both sit outside Fenty's perimeter.
A map of Fenty's active and closed ventures
Bringing all the structures together by their status as of September 15, 2026 gives this map. Fenty Beauty has run since September 8, 2017, with LVMH as partner through Kendo Brands and Rihanna's stake at 50%, confirmed by Forbes in 2021; since late 2025 press has reported LVMH weighing a sale of its half, with no deal announced. Fenty Skin, Fenty Hair and Fenty Fragrance sit in the same Kendo Brands portfolio; Rihanna's stake in each line is not disclosed separately. The Fenty fashion house operated from May 2019, with activity paused in February 2021; the partner was LVMH directly, and no source discloses a stake. Savage X Fenty has run since 2018, with TechStyle Fashion Group as partner (structure confirmed by Forbes as of 2021) plus a pool of financial investors; Rihanna's stake was estimated at 30% for 2021 and has not been publicly updated since the 2022 round, and from June 2023 to September 2024 the operating CEO was Hillary Super, with no further leadership structure established since. Fenty x Puma is a creative-director role: 2014-2018, then a return in 2023, and as of May 2026, per Sole Retriever, the collaboration has ended, with the line's last release dated October 2025; verified sources give no figure for her equity stake in Puma SE. The Tidal stake has been disclosed since 2015 and was minority at that point — about 3% for most shareholders per Billboard — and after Sprint bought 33% in 2017 and control passed to Square, now Block, in 2021, the current size of the artist co-owners' stakes is not published.
Practical checklist
- Look for the phrase “joint venture” in the parties' own statement — that is not the same as a collaboration, a name license or an endorsement contract.
- Check who is actually naming the percentage: the company and its partner, or only an outside outlet's estimate, as with Fenty Beauty, where Forbes itself confirmed the 50% figure in 2021, not a separate LVMH statement.
- Cross-check the parent company's own house list: paused ventures disappear from it, as the Fenty fashion house has from LVMH's current list of houses.
- Separate an equity stake from an operating title: a CEO can change, as at Savage X Fenty in 2023 and 2024, while the ownership stake stays the same or is simply never updated publicly.
- Do not confuse a contracted brand-face or creative-director role, as with Puma, for co-ownership: across both periods of Rihanna's work with Puma, sources say nothing about an equity stake.
Questions and answers
Is Rihanna the sole founder of Fenty Beauty?
No. Fenty Beauty has been a joint venture between Rihanna and LVMH from the start; Forbes confirmed the equal 50/50 split in 2021.
What is Kendo Brands?
An LVMH unit based in San Francisco through which LVMH holds its Fenty Beauty stake; the company's own site groups Fenty Skin, Fenty Hair and Fenty Fragrance in the same portfolio.
Is LVMH planning to sell its Fenty Beauty stake?
Business press has reported since autumn 2025 that LVMH is weighing a sale of its Fenty Beauty half and has held talks with investment firm MarcyPen Capital Partners; neither LVMH nor Fenty Beauty has confirmed a deal, and none had been announced as of September 15, 2026.
Who runs Savage X Fenty after Hillary Super's departure?
Super led the company from June 2023 to September 2024, then moved to become CEO of Victoria's Secret. No verified source names who took her place at Savage X Fenty or confirms whether Rihanna still holds the executive-chair role.
Did Rihanna hold equity in Fenty x Puma?
Across both collaboration periods — 2014-2018 and from 2023 (trade press reported its end in May 2026, with the last release in October 2025) — sources describe her role only as a contracted creative director; there is no data on an equity stake in Puma SE.