HarbourView Fairness Companions likes to current itself as a straight-faced asset supervisor, not a celeb purchaser. But its identify retains exhibiting up beside artists who formed the streaming period. In February 2025, the agency agreed to purchase T-Ache’s publishing catalogue and choose masters, a deal that later grew to become a speaking level after the artist described it publicly as a $100 million sale.
Sherrese Clarke Soares, HarbourView’s founder and chief government, got here up via structured finance, then determined to construct a agency that would personal the property fairly than simply lend towards them. HarbourView launched publicly in October 2021, backed by Apollo-linked capital, and arrange store in Newark, New Jersey, shut sufficient to New York’s cash, far sufficient to sign independence.
A childhood formed by hustle and numbers
Clarke Soares retains some private particulars personal. Her precise birthdate isn’t extensively printed, although an trade profile in 2022 described her as 45, putting her start within the mid-Seventies.
What she does discuss is how she grew up, and who taught her to suppose in offers. She has credited her father, Desmond Clarke, a Jamaican immigrant who drove a taxi whereas learning, then moved into actual property, constructing a brokerage and investing in property. She has described listening at dwelling as he labored via transactions, curiosity prices and danger, in plain language that made finance really feel sensible fairly than summary.
Music ran alongside the numbers. Clarke Soares has been described as a classically educated pianist, and she or he acted as a baby. That blend issues as a result of it formed the way in which she later talks about music rights. Songs are tradition, sure, however they’re additionally contracts, royalties, utilization knowledge and long-tailed funds that may be modelled.
The early lesson was easy: possession modifications the result. It’s one factor to advise on a deal or prepare the lending. It’s one other to take a seat on the asset and gather for years.
Harvard and Wall Avenue constructed her toolkit
Clarke Soares studied finance at Georgetown, then joined Morgan Stanley early in her profession. She left to attend Harvard Enterprise College, incomes her MBA within the mid-2000s, then returned to the world of credit score and leisure finance.
Her path via the trade is vital as a result of it explains HarbourView’s posture at the moment. This isn’t a agency constructed round artist entry or social proof. It’s constructed round underwriting. Clarke Soares labored in leisure finance at CIT Group and later returned to Morgan Stanley, rising to managing director and dealing on capital options tied to leisure, media and sports activities property.
Inside a financial institution, that work is about construction and draw back safety. Cashflows are discounted, covenants are debated, and the asset has to maintain paying even when sentiment turns. These instincts now sit on the centre of HarbourView’s pitch to institutional traders.
Tempo Music was the bridge between financing and possession. Backed by Windfall Fairness Companions, with Warner Music Group concerned strategically, Tempo was designed to purchase rights and handle them, not simply lend towards them. Clarke Soares ran it as founding chief government, then left and commenced constructing HarbourView.
She has stated publicly that she resigned from Tempo in late 2020 and began engaged on HarbourView in early 2021, earlier than the October launch.
HarbourView scaled quick via disciplined shopping for
HarbourView’s timing was sharp. Traders had been searching yield, streaming was offering clearer consumption indicators, and music royalties had been being offered as a sturdy various asset. Apollo-linked capital gave HarbourView the credibility and stability sheet to compete in auctions, the place pace and certainty matter.
The agency moved shortly. One among its early headline offers was the acquisition of Latin star Luis Fonsi’s publishing catalogue, anchored by the worldwide hit “Despacito”. It was an early marker that HarbourView wouldn’t confine itself to the same old Anglo-American catalogue lane.
It then added transactions throughout genres and eras, together with stakes tied to legacy repertoire reminiscent of Christine McVie’s recorded royalties, and rights linked to Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo. It additionally leaned into fashionable catalogue worth, doing offers in hip hop and pop the place streaming nonetheless drives significant income.
T-Ache sits neatly inside that logic. His work isn’t just a nostalgia commerce. His songs preserve resurfacing in playlists, social video, samples and licensing, which is the purpose. The asset isn’t the artist’s present chart place. The asset is the persistence of listening, and the authorized proper to gather when listening occurs.
Behind the headlines, HarbourView has additionally constructed financing capability. Royalty streams can be utilized as collateral, and the agency has tapped lenders and structured amenities to maintain shopping for with out relying solely on fairness cheques. That issues in a market the place catalogue costs can leap shortly, and the place sellers need confidence a purchaser can shut.
Clarke Soares has additionally signalled that HarbourView isn’t a pure-play music store. The agency has taken stakes in media companies, and it has described itself as investing throughout leisure and sports activities, with music because the engine that constructed early scale.
Her wager is obvious, and it’s not romantic. Songs with confirmed demand behave much less like speculative artwork and extra like contracted consumption, particularly when bundled, financed and professionally managed. If that sounds medical, it’s meant to. The purpose is to make music rights legible to pension funds and insurers.
The following check will come from the cycle. Capital will get costlier, bidding wars cool, and patrons have to point out that cashflows can maintain up with out hype. Clarke Soares has lived via these shifts from inside a financial institution. Now she is operating the platform that has to carry out when the temper modifications, and when the songs need to do the work.
