Everything the Kardashians touch seems to turn into gold and Kim Kardashian wants her latest venture, an investment in the culinary realm, to yield the same long-term return.
The megastar’s private equity firm SKKY Partners LP announced its first acquisition of Huntington Beach-based Sauce Ventures LLC, the company behind the popular brand Truff, on Nov. 21.
Founded last year with the former Carlyle Investment Management LLC partner Jay Sammons, SKKY focuses on consumer companies and will take out a “significant” minority stake in Truff by early next year. Since its founding in 2017 the condiment brand expanded rapidly past its viral hot sauce to ride the truffle ingredient’s growing popularity in oils, pasta sauces and mayonnaise.
“Truff is exactly the kind of business that embodies what we were looking for when we founded SKKY — a next-generation brand with a deep, authentic connection with consumers and the potential for ongoing growth,” Kardashian said in a statement.
Truffle-infusion has progressively plastered more packaging in grocery stores over the past several years. According to a report published this month by ReportLinker, the black truffle market is projected to grow from $296 million last year to $497 million by 2028.
Truff itself has taken up its share of shelf space, with its growing product suite sold in more than 20,000 stores including Whole Foods Market Services Inc., The Kroger Co. and Target Inc.
This is the first of SKKY’s planned eight to 12 investments over the next four or five years. Kardashian and Sammons began fundraising in March, courting high-net-worth individuals, sovereign funds and family offices to commit at minimum millions to their first fund.
Running the gamut of consumer goods, SKKY aims to capture the same scaling the Culver City-based Skims Body Inc. shapeware brand achieved by hitting trends at their algorithmic sweet spot.
SKKY, dually headquartered out of Kardashian’s and Sammon’s homes in Calabasas and Boston respectively, has hired nine staffers so far.