Copyright Inc. Magazine
Kim Kardashian’s Skims said Wednesday it had raised $225 million in a new funding round. That means the shapewear company is now valued at $5 billion. Founded in 2019 by Kardashian and Jens Grede, Skims is expected to earn more than $1 billion in net sales this year. Its last fundraising in 2023 brought in $270 million, valuing it at $4 billion. And in 2024, Skims made the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing privately-owned American companies, ranking an impressive 1,168. Goldman Sachs Alternatives, along with BDT & MSD Partners, led this financing round. Beat Cabiallavetta, Goldman’s global head of hybrid capital, said Skims caught their eye for its work in “pioneering new categories and redefining everyday wear.” Skims said the capital will go towards building new stores. The brand currently runs 18 locations in cities across the U.S., including New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta, and it plans to expand internationally. Featured Video An Inc.com Featured Presentation “Today’s announcement validates the hard work of our incredible team and partners who have helped us reach this exciting new chapter, becoming a global omnichannel retail brand,” Kardashian said. But Skims wants to expand past shapewear, too. And really, it already has. In February the brand launched a partnership with Nike, called NikeSkims, focusing on women’s apparel. The line combined Skims’ signature form-fitting expertise with Nike’s performance technology. It was the first time that Nike collaborated with an outside company to create a new brand. Going forward, NikeSkims plans to move into footwear and accessories. The brand has also been teasing a Skims beauty line. It wouldn’t be the first time Kardashian dipped her toe into makeup. In fact, she announced on Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast that the new line would offer products similar to KKW Beauty, the makeup brand that she launched in 2017. KKW Beauty shut down in 2021, and she launched skincare brand SKKN by Kim with Coty in 2022. Then in March, Skims bought back the rights to it. “My mission has always been to create products that resonate deeply—whether it’s shapewear and lingerie that empowers or make-up and skincare that transforms,” Kim said in a March press release. “Uniting everything under the SKIMS brand streamlines that vision.” In July, Skims released a new form of shapewear — for your face. The Seamless Sculpt Face Wrap is meant to snatch and sculpt the chin, neck and cheeks. It’s clear the brand is growing quickly. Speculation about an IPO has been floating around, but Grede dismissed the idea, at least in the short term. “We might make that position in the future, but that’s not what I’m thinking about,” he said in an interview with WWD last year.
