RARE Entity: Dave Stewart's New Venture to Shift Power to Artists

LONDON – January 8, 2026

Music icon and Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart, a figure Bob Dylan once called a "fearless innovator," has launched his most ambitious project yet: a venture builder named RARE Entity. Teaming up with serial entrepreneurs Dominic Joseph and Rich Britton, Stewart aims to fundamentally reshape the creative landscape by building companies that prioritize artist ownership and cultural impact over the traditional venture capital playbook.

The new company, launched today, enters a creative industry where artists and IP holders often find themselves at odds with the platforms that distribute their work. RARE Entity's mission is to challenge this status quo by creating a system where value flows back to the creators. It’s a direct response to an ecosystem where independence, creativity, and revenue are increasingly threatened by monolithic platforms.

"I've spent my life creating worlds - songs, stories, experiences," said Stewart, a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee. "RARE is the place where those ideas and worlds can grow, with the team and infrastructure to bring them to life on a global stage - ensuring these ideas and the artists are protected and firmly in control."

A New Blueprint for Venture Building

At its core, RARE Entity rejects the standard venture capital model of raising a large fund and then "chasing deals." Instead, it operates as a venture builder, or startup studio, a model that focuses on creating companies from the ground up using its own internal team and resources. The company's mantra is "companies & concepts come before the capital."

This "creativity-first" approach involves identifying and developing ventures with exceptional intellectual property, honing their creative edge, and building a robust operational foundation before seeking external investment. According to the company, funding is sought only when it serves to amplify growth, not as a prerequisite for existence. This strategy is designed to protect the integrity of a creative vision from the dilutive pressures that can accompany early-stage capital.

The founding trio represents a potent fusion of creative genius and operational expertise. While Stewart provides the cultural vision, his partners bring a history of building and scaling global businesses. Dominic Joseph, former CEO and co-founder of the search intelligence giant Captify, has a proven track record of growing a tech company to a successful private equity exit. Rich Britton contributes deep experience in brand strategy and venture creation from his time at Coca-Cola, Apple, and the Soho House Venture Studio.

"What we do at RARE is unique. We combine creativity and operations to bring the most culturally relevant concepts in the world to life," said Rich Britton, Co-Founder of RARE Entity.

"We're building a home for truly RARE ideas - ventures with heart, scale, and the power to define what culture feels like next," added Co-Founder Dominic Joseph. "We only work on epic ventures that we want to be part of, ones we believe can uniquely push boundaries and break the mold."

Rebalancing a Broken System

The launch of RARE Entity is more than a business announcement; it's a statement on the state of the creator economy. For decades, artists have struggled with contracts that cede control of their master recordings and publishing rights. The digital era, while offering unprecedented reach, has introduced new challenges, with streaming platforms often providing fractions of a cent per play, making sustainable careers difficult for many.

This is not Stewart's first foray into championing artist rights through entrepreneurship. His career is dotted with ventures aimed at empowering creators, from his early media company Weapons of Mass Entertainment to co-authoring "The Business Playground," a book on applying creative thinking to business. His new venture formalizes this lifelong mission, aiming to build an infrastructure that systemically favors the creator.

RARE Entity's model is part of a broader industry movement seeking alternatives to traditional power structures. While decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are exploring blockchain-based solutions for collective ownership and transparent royalties, RARE offers a more curated, high-touch approach. By building the venture alongside the creator, it provides not just a platform, but a dedicated operational team to navigate legal, financial, and strategic hurdles, with the explicit goal of keeping IP control in the hands of its originators. The plan to develop 60 such ventures over the next decade signals a long-term commitment to this new paradigm.

An Ecosystem of Cultural Ventures

The initial slate of companies under the RARE Entity umbrella demonstrates the breadth of its ambition, spanning music, immersive experiences, and sports. These aren't just ideas on a whiteboard; they are active businesses being integrated and accelerated by the new studio.

Among the marquee projects is Sonic Sphere, an immersive 360-degree audiovisual venue designed to redefine live performance. The venture is already working with top-tier artists to create bespoke works for the unique format, signaling a push into the lucrative and growing market for location-based, immersive entertainment.

In music, Rezonate is positioned as a next-generation music group co-founded with double-platinum producer Cam Blackwood and backed by Bridgepoint Capital. Its mission to help artists "realise their potential on their own terms" directly reflects RARE's core philosophy. The backing from a major capital firm suggests confidence in its artist-friendly business model.

Other ventures include Planet Fans, a direct-to-fan membership and wallet pass platform for sports and music communities, giving rights holders a new layer of direct monetization and engagement. The company is also evolving So It Goes, an acclaimed magazine, into a broader creative IP platform for talent-led storytelling.

The team extends beyond the founders, incorporating a network of influential creators. Multi-platinum songwriter and broadcaster Chelcee Grimes, who bridges the worlds of music and professional football, is a key collaborator. "RARE for me is about having the freedom to be unapologetically creative and to build moments that move people," Grimes stated. "Our business is where all those passions finally meet."

With a pipeline of original concepts including a cinematic musical hybrid called Zombie Broadway and a narrative world titled Floating Upstream, RARE Entity is laying the groundwork for a diverse and interconnected entertainment ecosystem. The success of this ambitious model will be a critical test case for whether a venture builder focused on culture can truly shift the industry's center of gravity back towards the artists who fuel it.