Kim Kardashian's Skims Now Worth $3.2 Billion; Reveals 'Magic' To Her Success

Kim Kardashian has revealed the "magic" behind her success as a businesswoman after growing Skims into a shapewear empire valued at a reported $3.2 billion in less than four years.

On Tuesday, the 42-year-old reality star sat down with "CNN This Morning" anchor Poppy Harlow at the Time 100 Summit and opened up about how Skims was formed, the secret to its success and the process of finding companies for her private equity firm SKKY Partners to invest in, CNN reported.

Kardashian revealed that the idea of Skims emerged when she was "looking for a solution" to the lack of shapewear that fit her and her friends' skin tones. She said that there "was nothing in between" a pale or a black color in shapewear when she launched her brand in September 2019.

The beauty mogul has since gone on to launch private equity fund SKKY Partners in September 2022 alongside Jay Sammons.

When it comes to investing, Kardashian told the anchor that she "absolutely" trusts her gut over data.

"The businesses that I have now have a complete and equal respect and trust in each other to run and do our thing. if you trust each other like that, it absolutely can be magic," she explained.

The "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" alum also shared that she now has the luxury of choosing the people she wants to be in business with.

"If you're at a place and you take your time, you realize you absolutely do not want to be in business with people that you don't want to spend holidays with and that you don't like," she said, adding that she didn't have that "opportunity" in the past.

In January last year, Skims, which was named one of Time's most influential companies for 2023, raised $240 million in a financing round led by hedge fund Lone Pine Capital. It also included D1 Capital Partners, as well as existing investors Thrive Capital, Imaginary Ventures and Alliance Consumer Growth.

This doubled the brand's valuation to $3.2 billion from $1.6 billion in April 2021, according to Forbes.

Thanks to the shapewear and clothing brand, Kardashian became a self-made billionaire with an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

Before the brand launched, a massive portion of Kardashian's fortune was attributed to her stake in her cosmetics company KKW Beauty, endorsement deals, small business investments and television appearances. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, Skims' sales jumped by about 90%, to $275 million, and were expected to hit $400 million last year.

Skims co-founder and CEO Jens Grede recently revealed to Forbes that the brand catered to 2.6 million customers and sold 12.5 million items last year, with 15% of those sales from outside of the U.S. It is unclear if the brand hit the $400 million mark.

"It is a testament to Skims being a part of popular culture and that culture is today global. The company is set to grow [by] over 50% in 2023, so we have a lot of work to do to support our growing customer base. This will for sure include both our own stores as well as for now, secret new categories," Grede said of the data.