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Newly Crowned Billionaire Jay-Z Just Invested in a Cookie Company The mogul's Marcy Venture Partners led a seed round for allergen-free cookie maker Partake Foods.

By Stephen J. Bronner Edited by Dan Bova

Kevin Mazur | Getty Images

Jay-Z isn't just one of the biggest rappers on the planet; he also owns a record label and holds investments in art, real estate and tech companies such as Uber. In fact, over the past decade, the Brooklyn native amassed a fortune of at least $1 billion, according to Forbes.

Sean Carter's latest investment, through his firm Marcy Venture Partners, is in New Jersey-based Partake Foods, a maker of allergen-free cookies. The $1 million seed round was led by Marcy and included The FactoryBackstage Capital, SoFi Ventures, and Beyond Meat's Chief Growth Officer, Chuck Muth.

Image Credit: Courtesy of Partake Foods

"Partake has the ingredients to build a mass market brand: compelling values, a great tasting product, and a tenacious and experienced operator," said Larry Marcus, Marcy Venture Partners co-founder and managing director, in a press release. "We are honored to back [Partake Founder] Denise [Woodard] and the team and help grow their business."

Related: 'If You Don't Stand for Something, You Seem to Go Away Fairly Quickly,' Says the Founder of The Gluten Free Bar

Former Coca-Cola national sales director Woodard started Partake Foods in 2016 after her daughter was diagnosed with multiple food allergies. Woodard raised more than $30,000 on Kickstarter to initially fund the business.

Image Credit: Courtesy of Partake Foods

"When I left my career at Coca-Cola in 2017, I literally sold cookies out of my car for six months, demoing every day and meeting store managers and customers," Woodard said in a release. "Our products can now be found in over 300 stores, and we expect to finish this year … in over 1,000 stores. We are so excited to collaborate with the MVP and Factory teams, as they both bring a wealth of knowledge in brand building and scaling consumer companies."

The press releases says Woodard will use the funds to build out a team, offer different sizes and grow the brand.

Stephen J. Bronner

Entrepreneur Staff

News Director

Stephen J. Bronner writes mostly about packaged foods. His weekly column is The Digest. He is very much on top of his email.

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