US EditionWorld’s biggest TikToker from Senegal sells company in $900m deal
Khaby Lame sold a 49% stake in Step Distinctive Limited to Rich Sparkle for $975 million, enabling AI-driven brand expansion and projected $4 billion annual sales.
- On 23 January 2026, Khaby Lame sold a partial stake in Step Distinctive Limited to U.S.-listed Rich Sparkle Holdings, folding the company into a strategic partnership to scale global commercial operations.
- The deal aims to transform creator influence into industrial-scale business by pursuing premium brands in beauty, fragrance and apparel through Step Distinctive Limited.
- Rich Sparkle and operating partners will hold exclusive global rights for 36 months and partner with Anhui Xiaoheiyang Network Technology Co., Ltd. to support e-commerce and multilingual livestreams, rolling out in the United States, Middle East and Southeast Asia.
- Lame gains an equity role as a controlling shareholder in Rich Sparkle, and the agreement permits development of an AI-powered digital twin for regulated use of his likeness.
- The deal signals a broader move to platform-driven creator commerce as Rich Sparkle projects the integrated commercial structure could generate more than $4 billion in annual sales.
91 Articles
91 Articles
The Senegalo-Italian influencer has sold his company for almost one billion dollars, in an agreement providing for the creation of a "digital twin" made with artificial intelligence.
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The star of TikTok Khaby Lame has agreed to the sale of its company Step Distinctive Limited, which manages its global brand and business activities, for an estimated $975 million. The operation was carried out through a stock exchange with Rich Sparkle, a holding company based in Hong Kong of which Lame becomes a shareholder.
Getting deported by Trump can’t stop top influencer Khaby Lame from notching a $975 million deal—including the rights to his AI avatar
Khaby Lame started posting videos on TikTok in 2020 as a coping mechanism after being laid off from his factory machine labor job at the onset of the pandemic. In videos of him silently doing things like applying butter to a pan, his deadpan humor gained him quick fame and earned him the label the “Gen Z Charlie Chaplin.” Lame kept at it, and in just six years, the 25-year-old built a massive following, becoming the most popular creator on TikTo…
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