- General
- August 3, 2018
- 4 minutes read
Music streaming service Deezer gets $185 million funding at a $1.16 Billion valuation
Deezer French music streaming startup Deezer has raised the sum of €160 million ($185 million) from new and existing shareholders…
Deezer
French music streaming startup Deezer has raised the sum of €160 million ($185 million) from new and existing shareholders coming at a reported valuation of $1.16 Billion with major investors in this round including Saudi Arabian investment firm Kingdom Holdings, French telecom giant Orange and several others with Deezer now inking an exclusive and long-term digital distribution agreement with Arabia’s largest entertainment company Rotana expanding its music streaming services into the region.
Big news! We are raising €160 million from new and existing shareholders, and we’ve also signed an exclusive, long-term digital distribution agreement with @RotanaMusic. Welcome to Deezer @Kingdom_KHC, @RotanaMusic and HRH @Alwaleed_Talal. https://t.co/O9LTizmsMT— Deezer (@Deezer) August 2, 2018
As confirmed by the company with a tweet, Kingdom Holdings, The firm led by Saudi Arabian Billionaire businessman Al-Waleed bin Talal notable for investments in other technology companies including Lyft, Twitter, Careem, JD.com and Snap is a major investor in this round inking the partnership with with Rotana which is primarily owned by the KHC leader Al-Waleed bin Talal.
“Rotana is the world’s premier provider of award-winning Arabic music,” said Rotana Audio CEO Salem Al Hindi in a statement. “We are now expanding our reach and distribution by partnering with Deezer, a leading global digital music streaming service, to deliver our high-quality music content to an ever-growing global listenership in the Middle East, North Africa and other regions around the world.”
“The new funding enables us both to accelerate our expansion in fast growing international music markets and strengthen our positions in key territories,” added Deezer CEO Hans-Holger Albrecht. “The exclusive long-term distribution agreement also provides us with a unique opportunity to build future market leader positions in exciting markets.”
This investment brings the total raised by Deezer to about $530 million since its inception in 2006.
Deezer states of having about 14 million monthly active users as of current which although quite huge is way lesser than major competitor Spotify’s 170 monthly user count.
Other notable investors in Deezer include Access Holdings, French entrepreneur and telecom company Orange chair Xavier Niel, Idinvest Partners, serial entrepreneur Jonathan Benassaya and several others.
