# Jay Brown

> Jay Brown is a funding round investor at Marcy Venture Partners backing Beauty and Retail. See 7 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Marcy Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/marcy-venture-partners)
- Location: New York, United States
- Total investments: 7
- Last investment: Apr 2022
- Lead investor: 14%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-brown-881522169

Jay Brown is a funding round investor at Marcy Venture Partners in New York focused on Beauty and Retail. Jay Brown has served as a member of our Board since January 2014. Jay Brown, a 20-year music industry executive veteran, fostered the careers and discovered countless superstars including Rihanna and Ne-Yo and worked with artists such as NAS. Jay Brown is the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Roc Nation, a full-service entertainment companystarted in 2008. Mr. Brown currently overseas the careers of a diverse Roc Nation roster comprised of Grammy award winning and critically acclaimed recording artists, writers and producers including Rihanna, Shakira, Timbaland, Kylie Minogue and Santigold. Prior to Roc Nation, Mr. Brown served as Executive Vice President for Def Jam Recordings from 2005 to 2008 and as Senior Vice President of Elektra Records from 1999 to 2004. Our Board has concluded that Mr. Brown should serve on the Board based upon his experience as an entrepreneur and senior executive and his broad knowledge of the music and entertainment industries.

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Series A | $9M–$15M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Beauty | 2 | 29% |
| Retail | 2 | 29% |
| Fashion | 2 | 29% |
| Web3 | 1 | 14% |
| Mobile | 1 | 14% |

14 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Funding Round | 3 | 43% |
| Series A | 2 | 29% |
| Seed | 1 | 14% |
| Series G | 1 | 14% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 4 | 57% |
| Canada | 1 | 14% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Madison Reed | Madison Reed is a beauty company revolutionizing the way women color their hair. The fast-growing startup uses technology, a proprietary ammonia-free formula, and a team of licensed colorists to deliver salon-quality hair color to homes nationwide for under $25. Headquartered in San Francisco, Madison Reed is a privately held company backed bytop-tier venture capital firms including Norwest Venture Partners, True Ventures and Maveron.Founded in 2013, Madison Reed started with a simple mission: To create a luxurious prestige hair color made with ingredients you can feel good about. Madison Reed’s conditioning formula is crafted without ammonia, parabens, resorcinol, PPD, phthalates, and gluten.The entire color and hair care line is enriched with argan oil, keratin, and ginseng root extract to protect and pamper hair. Its products can be found online, on mobile, and through select retailers including Sephora, QVC, and Ulta Beauty.It was founded in 2013 and headquartered in San Francisco, California. | $33M |  | Apr 28, 2022 |  |
| Madison Reed | Madison Reed is a beauty company revolutionizing the way women color their hair. The fast-growing startup uses technology, a proprietary ammonia-free formula, and a team of licensed colorists to deliver salon-quality hair color to homes nationwide for under $25. Headquartered in San Francisco, Madison Reed is a privately held company backed bytop-tier venture capital firms including Norwest Venture Partners, True Ventures and Maveron.Founded in 2013, Madison Reed started with a simple mission: To create a luxurious prestige hair color made with ingredients you can feel good about. Madison Reed’s conditioning formula is crafted without ammonia, parabens, resorcinol, PPD, phthalates, and gluten.The entire color and hair care line is enriched with argan oil, keratin, and ginseng root extract to protect and pamper hair. Its products can be found online, on mobile, and through select retailers including Sephora, QVC, and Ulta Beauty.It was founded in 2013 and headquartered in San Francisco, California. | $33M | Series G | Apr 28, 2022 |  |
| Alchemy | Alchemy is a web3 developer platform that helps companies to build reliable decentralized applications. Its mission is to provide developers with the fundamental building blocks they need to create the future of technology without the hassle of managing blockchain infrastructure in-house. | $15M | Series A | Dec 17, 2019 |  |
| Pela | They are a team of nature-loving entrepreneurs, passionate about building businesses they can be proud to share with the world.They see every challenge as an opportunity to learn, grow and expand our perspectives.As creators of the world’s first compostable phone case, their mission is simple - to reduce the amount of plastic waste on this planet,one phone case at a time. | $5M |  | Oct 08, 2019 |  |
| Right Rice | RightRice is a tasty new rice grain that's made from vegetables. It's what they all love about rice, but made even right-er. RightRice is a complete, plant-based protein that's delicious, nutritious, and easy to cook. Every bowl of RightRice has more than double the protein, five times the fiber, and almost 40 percent fewer net carbsthan a bowl of white rice. Just like rice, RightRice soaks up your favorite flavors and sauces. Original RightRice is ready to season your own way, or you can try one of their delicious, already seasoned varieties like Lemon Pepper, Spanish or Garlic Herb—all using real herbs and spices, nothing artificial, non-GMO, vegan, and a complete source of protein, all with a low glycemic index. | $5.5M |  | Mar 04, 2019 |  |
| BeautyCon | Beautycon Media is THE global community for content creators, celebrities, fans, and brands for fashion, beauty and lifestyle. Their mission is to challenge traditional beauty standards and redefine what beauty means. They embrace "imperfections" and the nontraditional—both inside and out, with a focus on featuring innovators of allages, races, and identities. They’re a diverse global community of content creators, celebrities, fans, and brands that come together to celebrate using make-up as a tool for self-expression and sharing your enthusiasm with the world. They create meaningful connections for these communities through our Beautycon Festivals, Beautycon Box, and Beautycon Digital platforms. | $9M | Series A | Mar 20, 2017 |  |
| BeautyCon | Beautycon Media is THE global community for content creators, celebrities, fans, and brands for fashion, beauty and lifestyle. Their mission is to challenge traditional beauty standards and redefine what beauty means. They embrace "imperfections" and the nontraditional—both inside and out, with a focus on featuring innovators of allages, races, and identities. They’re a diverse global community of content creators, celebrities, fans, and brands that come together to celebrate using make-up as a tool for self-expression and sharing your enthusiasm with the world. They create meaningful connections for these communities through our Beautycon Festivals, Beautycon Box, and Beautycon Digital platforms. | $2M | Seed | Sep 17, 2014 |  |

7 of 7 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [BBG Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bbg-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Hearst Communications](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/hearstcorporation) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Sandbridge Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sandbridge-capital) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [AccelFoods](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/accelfoods) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [A+E Global Media](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/a-e-television-networks) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Blueberry Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/blueberryventures) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## About Marcy Venture Partners

VC Fund · San Francisco, United States

Marcy Venture Partners (MVP) was Co-Founded by Shawn Carter (JAY-Z), Jay Brown and Larry Marcus. MVP has a passion for building innovative businesses and mass-market brands. The firm invests in Consumer & Culture with an emphasis on positive impact including sustainability, inclusivity, accessibility, empowerment and health & wellness.Our companies are led by exceptional management teams with clear vision, purpose and executional excellence. We lead or co-invest in companies that have meaningful brand values, high customer joy driven by an outstanding product, demonstrated growth and clear catalysts for the next level of scale.

4 contacts available at Marcy Venture Partners.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Charlie Hanna | Principal | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/charlie-hanna |
| Jay Brown | Co-Founder & Managing Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/jay-brown-3 |
| Larry Marcus | Co-Founder & Managing Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/larry-marcus |
| Shawn Carter | Founder | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/shawn-carter-jay-z |

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## FAQ

### What does Jay Brown invest in?

Jay Brown invests primarily in Beauty, Retail and Fashion startups, most often at Funding Round and Series A stage. Most of the 7 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is Jay Brown's check size?

Jay Brown typically joins rounds of $9M–$15M at Series A. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Jay Brown participates in.

### When did Jay Brown last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Jay Brown closed in Apr 2022. Shizune tracks 7 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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