Kobalt has revealed that it has raised $75 million in growth capital, following a Series D funding round led by Hearst Entertainment with participation from Balderton Capital and MSD Capital.
Kobalt will use the funding to further develop its royalty collections platform.
“From the start, my vision for Kobalt has been to transform the music industry and help take it into the digital age,” said Willard Ahdritz, founder and CEO of Kobalt Music. “With the high growth of streaming and the billions of microtransactions that take place per song, the music industry is more complex than ever. Guided by core principles of transparency, technology, and putting creators first, I have never been more sure that our platform, combined with our global creative team, is the right one to serve creators and rights owners in the rapidly evolving digital music environment.”
“The music industry is growing revenue again and it’s due to the meteoric rise of music streaming on services like Spotify, Apple, Google, Amazon and Pandora,” added Neeraj Khemlani, president of Hearst Entertainment. “Willard has brilliantly positioned Kobalt to be an important company at the center of this booming industry by building an invaluable platform for artists, songwriters and third party labels and publishers looking to have complete, real time transparency into how their music is being consumed and thereby collect royalty revenue more efficiently and faster than ever before.”
Ahdritz continued: “We are excited to welcome Hearst as a new investor in Kobalt. They share our passion for making sure creators are paid and fully informed. Hearst is a prominent content owner with exciting investments in new forms of entertainment for the next generation of consumers. We welcome them on the board of Kobalt.”
Last month, Kobalt posted that its revenues for the 12-month period ending in June 2016 were up 15% to $260 million.
The company’s annual financial posting also showed an 8.4% increase in its gross profit to $30.7m, while its operating losses of $16.7m were down 32.4% from $24.7 the previous year.
Elsewhere, administration expenses were cut by 23.8% for the period, totalling $38.3.
