Buran Venture Capital closes US$8.5 million investment in Shazam.
February 24, 2015 – European venture capital fund Buran Venture Capital (www.buranvc.com) today announced the closing of US$8.5 million investment in Shazam Entertainment Limited (www.shazam.com). The deal is a part of the recent financing round closed by Shazam, which took place in late January 2015 and values the business at US$1 billion.
The funding will support Shazam’s continued product evolution and rapid growth following a year of user milestones, increased service capabilities, and expansion into new market sectors.
Currently Shazam has over 600 million downloads and a user base of over 110 million monthly active mobile users (MAU). The Company has diverse revenue streams, including music sales accounting for about 10 percent of the global music market, mobile advertising, and partnership deals that employ technology for promotional and marketing purposes. Shazam’s technology is now integrated into television shows and commercials, movie theatres, retail environments, radio content, and digital out—‐ of—‐home advertising.
Andrew Fisher, Executive Chairman of Shazam said “We are delighted to be working with the Buran team who bring significant expertise in a number of key markets that we expect to be increasingly important for us. This funding will enable us to further accelerate the delivery of a new paradigm for brands and content owners to increase engagement with their audiences, whilst magically connecting people to the world around them.»
Alexander Konoplyasty, Managing Partner, Buran Venture Capital: “We are pleased to support Shazam in achieving their ambitious goals and we are thrilled to back such an outstanding and experienced team. We believe that Shazam will continue to dominate the music market in the mobile space and its technology will find new applications in other areas.”
About Shazam: Shazam is one of the world’s most popular mobile apps that connects people to the world around them. Shazam pioneered audio recognition technology that helps people identify music and has grown into a service that effortlessly connects people with artists, TV shows, ads, cinema, radio and retail environments.
When a user “Shazams” a song or TV show, they are able to identify, explore, purchase and share that content. One of the world’s top apps, Shazam has been downloaded onto more than 600 million mobile devices, exceeds 110 million monthly active users, and is growing by over 1 million new users each week.
About Buran Venture Capital: Buran Venture Capital is a European focused venture fund founded in 2012. Target sectors include services e—‐commerce, mobile applications and SaaS (software—‐as—‐service) solutions in CEE, CIS, Israel and Turkey.
The investment portfolio includes: Ponominalu (www.ponominalu.ru), SravniKupi (www.sravnikupi.ru), Netology Group (www.netology—‐group.ru) and Dashboard Systems (www.boardmaps.com). Ponominalu allows customers to order and buy tickets for entertainment events online in Russia. SravniKupi is a Russian price comparison service enabling users to compare and purchase insurance policies online. Netology Group is the largest Russian online education platform focusing on Unified State Examination courses for children as well as professional education for individuals and corporates. Dashboard Systems provides SaaS solutions for workflow management of supervisory boards, boards of directors, executive boards, committees and working parties targeting European and Asian clients.
The founders of Buran Venture Capital also made a significant personal account investment into Chess.com (www.chess.com). Chess.com is the largest chess playing online community in the world with more than 11 million registered users.