B2B music licensing marketplace Songtradr has raised USD $50 million in an oversubscribed series D funding round.
The round saw participation from Australian based institutional investors including Regal, Aware Super, Perennial, Argo and Greencape, as well as a follow-on investment from the founder and CEO of Wisetech Global, Richard White.
Now, there’s talk of a potential IPO for Songtradr – perhaps even as early as the second half of this year.
Songtradr‘s latest funding round follows its $30m Series C round in August last year, which, at the time, valued the company at $165m.
The Los-Angeles headquartered music rights firm has now raised over $100m to date, valuing the company at over $300m.
Previously, Songtradr raised $4m in a Series A funding round in 2018 and $12m in a Series B funding round in 2019.
Songtradr, which describes itself as “the world’s largest B2B music licensing marketplace”, specializes in licensing fully-cleared music for sync to a range of clients including the likes of Disney, Netflix, Apple, Coca-Cola, Amazon and Columbia Pictures.
It claims to connect over 600,000 artists, songwriters and music rights owners to a B2B marketplace of music buyers such as brands, advertising agencies, streaming platforms, SVOD networks, film, TV, gaming companies and influencers.
The firm has over 300,000 tracks licensed through its ecosystem and more than 1.5m tracks on its platform.
Since completion of the Series C funding round last August, Songtradr states that it has executed an acquisition strategy “to reinforce its ecosystem”.
The company has made four acquisitions in 2021 alone, the most of recent of which being creative music agency MassiveMusic earlier this month. That deal followed the company’s acquisition of music and sound design firm Song Zu in March and of Tunefind and Pretzel in April.
In November 2020, Songtradr also acquired UK-based sync licensing business Cuesongs, and in September 2020 announced its investment into ASX listed music data company Jaxsta.
In a media release announcing the funding round today (June 21), Songtradr founder and CEO Paul Wiltshire said: “Songtradr is rapidly accelerating as we continue to develop our tech-enabled B2B music ecosystem and integrate our new acquisitions.
“Attracting such a blue-chip investor base into this round further endorses our vision of the future music industry in this rapidly evolving digital world, providing a strong foundation for the future.
“Songtradr experienced over 100% revenue growth year over year in 2020 and we are on track to achieve this again in 2021.”
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Songtradr’s new funding round comes ahead of its potential listing on the ASX in Australia.
“I think we’re on track to become a public company in the near future,” said Wiltshire, speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald over the weekend.
He added: “At this stage, we’re looking at all opportunities. The second half of this year is possible, and we’re certainly working towards being in a position to do that.”
“Songtradr is rapidly accelerating as we continue to develop our tech-enabled B2B music ecosystem and integrate our new acquisitions.”
Paul Wiltshire, Songtradr
Richard White, Founder and CEO of Wisetech Global, added: “I have watched Songtradr evolve rapidly over the last 3 years. During this time, Paul and his team have not missed a beat in delivering on their vision, which is impressive by any standard.
“Songtradr has amplified its strong organic growth and ambitious product roadmap with a highly impactful M&A strategy that further enhances longer term growth potential.
“I believe the company now has the scale, global footprint and talent to accelerate its plan to transform the music industry.”Music Business Worldwide
