Even before Grammy-winning music artist Nelly agreed to sell certain recorded assets to HarbourView Equity Partners last year, it was clear there was a new player in the content business. HarbourView has been highly acquisitive, buying recorded assets from “Despacito” songwriter Luis Fonsi, hip-hop/R&B group Full Force, country star Kane Brown, rapper/singer Wiz Khalifa, R&B artist Jeremih, and singer-songwriter Blackbear, among others.
Since launching in 2021, HarbourView has closed more than 60 transactions in the music space. Thanks to an approximate $500 million debt deal from KKR and other investors closed earlier this year, HarbourView plans to keep acquiring assets that fit its requirements and monetize them whenever a song in its catalog is played on a music streaming service, piped in at a restaurant or bar, or used in a film or movie trailer.
As HarbourView Equity Partners founder and CEO Sherrese Clarke Soares puts it, “Content is queen.” Headquartered in Newark, NJ, HarbourView is a multi-strategy, global investment firm focused on investment opportunities in the entertainment and media space. “You, therefore, earn downstream royalties,” Soares explains. “We are laser-focused on taking a very data-driven and audience-level approach to what we’re building.”
HarbourView applies specific analytics to diligence potential investments and optimize existing assets, examining where the audience for a particular asset is and where growth may come from. “We’ve built our own data platform to synthesize and analyze that data and then drive to decisions,” says Soares. “Then we use that same system to ensure the portfolio construction leads to the return threshold we’re trying to accomplish.” HarbourView takes a bottom-up approach to building a diversified pool of assets resistant to broad economic cycles and has forecastable, durable income streams.
“We close deals, we onboard them, we collect cash, and we continue building to achieve real diversification, real scale. We think our alpha is in our data process and portfolio construction.”
Sherrese Clark Soares, Founder and CEO, HarbourView Equity Partners
That is not to say the firm has no plans to pursue asset exits, but the emphasis is on perpetual cash flows. “We close deals, we onboard them, we collect cash, and we continue building to achieve real diversification, real scale. We think our alpha is in our data process and portfolio construction,” says Soares. With a few deals in the works, the firm should have close to $90 million in LTM income, which translates to about $1.5 to $2 billion in asset value, diversified across artists and songs. “No single song takes up too much of that income, and we continue to build beyond that.”
Parental Guidance
Soares inherited her entrepreneurial spirit from her father, Desmond Clarke. A Jamaican immigrant who drove a taxi while attending community college, he later launched a real estate brokerage and eventually invested in properties. “He knew how to make a dollar out of 15 cents,” Soares recalls. “If my dad had the opportunities I have today when he was 25 or 35, he would be Tishman Speyer, no question. He’s entrepreneurial and knows how to put a deal together.” As a child, the young Soares loved the arts (classically trained pianist, child actor) and loved the art of a deal. She would listen to her father as he walked her through real estate transactions and structuring debt financing at the kitchen table. These conversations inspired her to pursue a career in finance to marry her love of culture and investing and served as the foundation of her dealmaking skills.
After graduating from Georgetown, Clarke Soares began her professional career at Morgan Stanley, initially as an Analyst in Equity Capital Markets Services, where she contributed to major equity transactions and IPOs and later transitioned to Equity Research on the Enterprise Software Team. She left Morgan Stanley in 2002 to attend Harvard Business School, graduating in 2004.
In 2004, she joined GE Capital as Assistant Vice President, pioneering the company’s initial foray into entertainment investments. She expertly identified and evaluated principal investment opportunities in senior secured debt, mezzanine debt, and equity securities.
Her expertise led Soares to CIT Group in 2005, where she served as Senior Vice President and one of the founding leaders of the Entertainment Practice. At CIT, she provided advisory services and structured financial solutions to media and entertainment clients, managing a $1 billion portfolio and overseeing a team of professionals. Her strategic vision and leadership were instrumental in developing business plans and investment criteria for entertainment companies, driving complex investments in senior debt, mezzanine, and equity capital.
Returning to Morgan Stanley in 2009, Soares rose to the Managing Director and Head of North American Relationship Lending position. By 2017, she was named Managing Director and Head of Entertainment, Media, and Sports Structured Solutions, where she founded and led the development of a groundbreaking platform focused on capital solutions for intellectual property, demonstrating an innovative approach and deep industry knowledge.
More to Come
In 2019, leveraging her extensive experience at Morgan Stanley, Soares founded and served as CEO and board member for Tempo Music. At Tempo Music, she led the strategic structuring of a special purpose acquisition platform, managed initial catalog acquisitions, and formed a strategic partnership with Warner Music Group. She executed the vision for acquiring music royalties and copyrights, set the investment strategy, and scaled the platform to 10 professionals. Under her leadership, Tempo Music invested in 12 assets, built a strong team culture, and forged powerful strategic partnerships within the industry.
However, Soares did not own a controlling interest in Tempo, so after approximately a year and a half, she resigned and launched HarbourView. “My goal has always been to be an investor in the broad media entertainment space because I’m super passionate about the impact that content and storytelling have on the world and people’s lives,” she says. “I was also really passionate about my vantage point and what I could add to that as an investor. So, I really wanted to put those two things together.”
With the pieces in place, scores of transactions completed, and more in the HarbourView pipeline, Soares is now focused on creating a multi-strategy firm. The firm is developing a Growth Opportunity strategy, seeded by limited partners, to invest in media and entertainment platforms or companies. In April, HarbourView acquired Mucho Mas Media, an inclusive LatinX multimedia platform dedicated to cultivating talent and producing global content. Among Mucho Mas Media’s intellectual property is “The Long Game,” an acclaimed movie about the San Felipe Mustangs, a group of Mexican-American youths who overcame country club prejudice to become the 1957 Texas state golf champions. The film was released in April 2024, opening in the Top 10 at the U.S. box office.
The transaction is just a step in Soares’ goal of incorporating additional strategies to leverage her expertise in the entertainment space. “The plan is to have strategies that continue to dig deeper and deeper and deeper in the media and entertainment segment,” Soares explains. “So, we’re really focused on that because this is how we can add value, particularly as we invest in platforms.”
“My goal has always been to be an investor in the broad media entertainment space because I’m super passionate about the impact that content and storytelling have on the world and people’s lives.”
Sherrese Clark Soares, Founder and CEO, HarbourView Equity Partners
“My goal has always been to be an investor in the broad media entertainment space because I’m super passionate about the impact that content and storytelling have on the world and people’s lives.”
Sherrese Clark Soares, Founder and CEO, HarbourView Equity Partners