Fame and Fortune: Kris Jenner

Irrespective of your view on reality TV or the Kardashian-Jenner family, you can appreciate that Kris Jenner wears many hats — mother of six, grandmother of eleven, business owner, investor, producer, and “momager.” Kris is known for taking a 10% cut from each of her children’s business endeavors, a number that has grown her net worth exponentially due to the enormous financial success of her children.

Kris is the Founder & CEO of Jenner Communications, the company under which she manages all six of her children’s businesses. Kris incorporated Jenner Communications in August 2007, only a few months before Keeping Up with the Kardashians premiered on E! in October. It is clear that she had a vision for her family even 15 years ago, but no one could have predicted the financial success they would achieve, with two of the six children (Kylie and Kim) even attaining billionaire status and profiles in Forbes.

Family Business Endeavors

The Kardashian-Jenners are serial entrepreneurs, proven by their track record of launching, running, and, in some cases, selling businesses. Over the past 15 years, the family has filed hundreds of trademarks, in some instances without ever further developing the intended ideas.

Of course, some of the businesses that the Kardashian-Jenners have started are defunct or have failed, but each founder has demonstrated the ability to pivot and “keep up” with trends by quickly sunsetting companies that are no longer viable. The family built its entrepreneurial roots in brick-and-mortar retail, operating several boutiques. DASH capitalized on women’s apparel and accessories, and Smooch in children’s clothing. However, the family closed the stores years ago to focus primarily on direct-to-consumer (DTC) operations via online channels that better capitalized on their star power and wide existing fan-customer base. Earlier this summer, Kim Kardashian shut two of her beauty brands, KKW Beauty and KKW Fragrance, and quickly launched a new skincare company called SKKN BY KIM. The new company has become an immediate success, like most of Kim’s previous ventures. Kim’s non-celebrity repeat entrepreneur counterparts are generally not able to achieve the same level of value overnight. Normally, it takes several years and multiple rounds of fundraising to generate a strong customer base and profitability, regardless of industry.

A look into the family’s portfolio of companies and other ventures:

Kim Kardashian

SKKN BY KIM — 9-piece skincare collection; launched June 2022

• Kim sold a 20% stake in her previous beauty business, KKW Beauty, to Coty as part of a strategic partnership; the transaction was valued at $200M, which included a KKW Collaboration Agreement (valued at $180.6M) and 20% interest in KKW Holdings ($19.4M)

SKIMS — undergarments, shapewear, and loungewear; launched September 2019

• SKIMS’ latest valuation was $3.2B in January 2022 following a Series B raise of $240M
• The company has raised $399M total since inception from D1 Capital Partners, Lone Pine Capital, Alliance Consumer Growth, Thrive Capital, Imaginary Ventures

July 2023 update: SKIMS raised a $270M Series C round led by Wellington Management with contributions from Greenoaks Capital Partners and several existing investors, putting the company’s latest valuation at $4B and bringing the total capital raised to ~$670M. Kim reportedly owns ~35% of SKIMS, which implies that her stake is now worth approximately $1.4B.

KKH (Kim Kardashian: Hollywood) — app-based video game created by Glu Mobile in June 2014

• In 2018, the app was reported to have brought in $200M in sales, and Kim’s cut is estimated to be 45%

Direct company investments:

• Screenshop — mobile shopping platform (exited, sold to Snap); invested in $4.5M Angel raise

Other roles:

• Co-Founder of Shoedazzle.com and formerly Chief Fashion Stylist
• Chief Taste Officer of Beyond Meat

Khloé Kardashian

Good American — size-inclusive clothing brand; launched October 2016

• Khloe founded the company with British businesswoman Emma Grede
• Reported $1M of sales on its first day and estimated revenues were $155M in 2020
• Emma is a founding partner of SKIMS and co-founder of Safely, two other Kardarshian-Jenner businesses

Direct company investments:

• Dose and Co — collagen products; Angel investment, amount unknown
• ZenWTR — alkaline water in a 100% post-consumer recycled bottle; Angel investment, amount unknown

Kourtney Kardashian

Poosh — wellness and lifestyle website; launched April 2019

Kylie Jenner

King Kylie — Kylie Cosmetics, Kylie Skin, Kylie Baby

• Kylie Cosmetics — cosmetics; launched November 2015; the company started with one product — Kylie Lip Kits, which included a liquid lipstick and matching lip liner
• Kylie Skin — skincare; launched May 2019
• Kylie Baby — baby care and products; launched September 2021
• Kylie sold a 51% stake in King Kylie to Coty in January 2020 for $600M as part of a joint venture agreement, which valued the business at $1.2B (TTM revenue at the time the transaction was announced in November 2019 was estimated at $177M)
• Kylie’s products were originally exclusively sold DTC, but she partnered with Ulta in November 2018 to sell in the company’s retail stores (Ulta benefited greatly from this deal, as store traffic increased and brought in new, younger consumers)
• Kylie was named the youngest self-made billionaire by Forbes in 2019, but the publication later reported that revenues from Kylie Cosmetics were either supported by fake tax returns or had declined year-over-year when Coty announced the acquisition and provided actual financial data
• Separately, Coty has continued to struggle financially even after the Kardashian acquisitions, in some ways proving the power of celebrity-owned and operated businesses given that they are more malleable than traditional large corporates, allowing them to adapt to changing trends quickly

Kendall Jenner

Moon Oral Care — vegan oral hygiene products; partnered in April 2019

• Kendall partners with Moon and collaborates on product creation

818 Tequila — tequila; launched May 2021

• 818 was named the best-selling tequila of 2021 and had shipped 1.5M bottles of tequila by December 2021 (each bottle retails for ~$45–70, depending on the type)

Rob Kardashian

Arthur George Socks — socks; launched December 2012

• Rob had to sell 50% of the business to Kris because the company needed a cash infusion

Kris Jenner

Safely — plant-powered home products; launched March 2021

• Kris partnered with Emma Grede and Chrissy Teigen to launch the brand
• Products are now sold in Bed Bath & Beyond and Walmart

Direct company investments:

• Right Rice — vegetable grains (exited, sold to the Planting Hope Company); invested in $5.5M Seed Round
• Glorify — Christian daily worship and wellbeing app; invested in $40M Series A Round alongside Andreessen Horowitz and SoftBank
• Health Nut — a healthy fast-casual restaurant chain that the family frequents (search “Kardashian salad” on Google); Angel investment, amount unknown

The Power of Earned Media Value

The Kardashian-Jenner family capitalizes on a concept called Earned Media Value (EMV). EMV is a metric that represents the monetary value of an influencer or brand on social media. EMV is mainly driven by impressions (level of content appearance in audiences’ feeds) and the amount spent on marketing one’s account or brand. The Kardashian-Jenners use their influencer status to increase the EMV of their brands. According to Hopper’s “Instagram Rich List,” it costs brands anywhere from $1–2M per post to have a member of the family advertise for them on Instagram: Kylie (#2) $1.8M per post, Kim (#6) $1.7M per post, Khloe (#9) $1.3M per post, Kendall (#10) $1.3M per post, Kourtney (#17) $1M per post. However, it costs the members of the family $0 to advertise their own brands on their personal platforms, significantly reducing or in some cases eliminating marketing costs for these companies. EMV has therefore helped the family launch businesses without incurring external significant marketing expenses. A single post about a new product drop sets fans into an immediate frenzy, causing the items to sell out; for example:

• 818 — sold out in 4 hours post initial launch to customers in ~80 countries
• SKIMS — sold out of every product ($2M worth) in a few minutes
• Kylie Lip Kits — first product drop of 5,000 units priced at $29 sold out in less than 10 minutes

TV Show

Separately, E! — the network of family’s TV show, Keeping Up with the Kardashians (KUWTK) — that helped launch their fame reportedly paid them $100M in 2015 for 5 seasons and $150M in 2017 for another 5 seasons; this means that the Kardashian-Jenners were making $20–30M per season. After KUWTK ended, the family signed an even more lucrative deal — $100M for 2 seasons — for a new show on Hulu called The Kardashians. These deals do not account for the several spinoffs that have aired, including Kourtney and Khloé Take Miami, Kourtney and Kim Take Miami, Kourtney and Kim Take New York, Khloé & Lamar, Kim’s Fairytale Wedding: A Kardashian Event, Kourtney and Khloé Take The Hamptons, DASH Dolls, Rob & Chyna.

Estimated Market Value

In total, Kris Jenner has generated over $5B in known market value due to the sheer success of many of her family’s business endeavors over the last 15 years. She not only operates what is essentially a venture studio but also is an active angel investor who funds companies she believes in. Fame served as the base for Kris to build a fortune that has only continued to expand as each entrepreneur in the family enters new markets, either by building businesses or collaborating with successful, established brands.