Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter is a man with many hats and talents. The Brooklyn native recently reached a milestone, that many rappers never see. He has officially been deemed a billionaire. Yes, with a ‘b.’
Jay-Z’s multiple businesses ventures, investments, and extensive music catalog helped him to achieve this status. Now, he’s taking things even further.
The musician’s company, Marcy Venture Partners, recently put 1 million dollars into a Black-owned vegan cookie company. Partake Foods is owned and operated by former Coca Cola sales director, Denise Woodard.
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Partake was inspired around three years ago when Woodard discovered her daughter’s food allergies. She decided to create her own recipe for cookies that her daughter would love all while been allergy friendly.
With the help of crowdfunding donations, Partake Foods was born. Woodward did all the leg work on her on. Everything from selling the cookies out of the trunk of her car to personally meeting with store managers and customers.
Now, you can find the company in over 300 stores. By the end of the year, the goal is to expand into over 1,000 stores.
Jay’s Marcy Venture Partners wasn’t the only company to invest. The FactoryBackstage Capital, SoFi Ventures, and Chuck Muth, Chief Growth Officers of Beyond Meat all plan to invest as well.
“We are so excited to collaborate with the Marcy Venture Partners and Factory teams, as they both bring a wealth of knowledge in brand building and scaling consumer companies,” Woodard said in an interview with Black Enterprise.
“Partake has the ingredients to build a mass market brand: compelling values, a great tasting product, and a tenacious and experienced operator. We are honored to back Denise and the team and help grow their business.”’ said Larry Marcus, Marcy Venture Partners co-founder, and managing director.
Partake currently offers sprouted grain chocolate mini cookies, double chocolate chip mini cookies, sweet potato millet mini cookies, and carrot oat mini cookies. All products are dairy-free, non-GMO, nut-free and soy-free.
