Who Owns Kendra Scott?

Kendra Scott founded the company in 2002 in Austin, Texas, literally from her spare bedroom. With $500 and a newborn son, she designed her first jewelry collection and sold it door to door to local boutiques. Her early designs used natural stones and bold, colorful shapes at accessible prices, a combination that stood out against both fine jewelry and cheap costume pieces.

The brand's first retail store opened in Austin in 2010, anchoring a model the company calls experiential retail: stores built around a Color Bar where customers design their own pieces, choosing settings and stones. The format became the brand's signature and drove a national store rollout through the 2010s, funded in part by a 2014 investment from Norwest Venture Partners and a larger 2016 minority investment from Berkshire Partners.

The 2016 Berkshire deal, which valued the company at more than $1 billion, marked Kendra Scott's arrival as a major independent jewelry brand. Revenue climbed through the decade as the company expanded its store count past 100, grew e-commerce, and deepened wholesale placement in Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's and Dillard's, plus hundreds of independent boutiques.

The company broadened its assortment beyond jewelry into home goods, beauty and licensed categories. In 2023 it launched Yellow Rose by Kendra Scott, a western-inspired line, and began extending into eyewear, fragrance, hats and footwear. Revenue reached approximately $500 million in 2023, up nearly 20% from the prior year.

In 2024, 65 Equity Partners, HPS Investment Partners and Belzberg & Co. invested in a recapitalization that redeemed Berkshire Partners and Norwest, increased Scott's majority stake, and provided growth capital. In January 2026, the company appointed Chris Blakeslee as CEO, and in November 2026 it hired Tiffany & Co. veteran Kerry Feldmann as chief merchandising officer. The store count stood at roughly 165 locations in late 2026, with continued expansion planned across new categories and markets.