Deezer is a global music streaming service that provides access to a catalog of 53 million tracks across smartphones, tablets, PCs, home sound systems, connected cars and smart TVs. Founded in 2007 and led by CEO Hans-Holger Albrecht, the service is available in over 180 countries and reports 14 million monthly active users. The company completed a €160m capital increase that valued it at €1 billion. Backers in the placement included Kingdom Holding Company, Rotana Group, Access Industries, Orange and LBO France. Alongside the financing, Deezer signed an exclusive long-term agreement with Rotana to distribute Rotana’s digital audio and video content across the Middle East and North Africa, covering Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the UAE. The company says the funding will enable it to accelerate growth and expand content distribution in key markets; it also maintains offices in Berlin, London, Moscow, Miami and São Paulo. Deezer operates a music and audio streaming service offering personalized radio, high-definition audio, lyrics and podcast content; it has expanded its catalogue to about 40 million songs and hosts roughly 40,000 podcasts after acquiring Stitcher. The company operates in 180 countries and during its IPO roadshow reported 6.3 million customers, of which 1.5 million are paying subscribers and roughly 4.8 million are bundled subscribers through partners such as carriers. Deezer is not currently profitable by choice; management says it could become profitable quickly if it reduced marketing and customer-acquisition spend. The business plans to use capital to fund operations, execution and marketing to grow users and may also use funds to pay rights holders. Management has indicated partnerships and bundled offers (for example with video services) as potential future strategic moves, while declining to comment on M&A. Deezer cancelled a planned IPO last year and says the new funding lets it delay an IPO until the company chooses to pursue one. Deezer is a streaming music service offering a catalogue of around 30 million songs. The company reports 5 million paid users and 16 million monthly active users across 180 countries, with about 75% of listening occurring on mobile devices. Deezer has pursued growth via partnerships and capital raises, having raised nearly $150 million in total, including a $130 million injection last year from Access Industries. Germany's ProSiebenSat.1 is taking a stake in Deezer and is merging its AMPYA music effort into Deezer. Under the deal AMPYA's operational business will be merged into Deezer while the AMPYA portal will continue to operate under the MyVideo brand, and Deezer will assume AMPYA's music-supply deal with Vodafone Germany. Michael Krause, AMPYA's managing director, will become Deezer's managing director for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and the partnership aims to use ProSiebenSat.1's reach to expand Deezer's audience. Founded in 2006 in France, Deezer operates a music-streaming service built around a freemium model and carrier partnerships. The company reports 26 million registered users, 7 million active monthly users and 2 million paying subscribers, and hosts about 20 million tracks. Deezer has been profitable since the end of 2010 and had previously raised about $15 million in funding. It leverages carrier licensing deals and a Facebook partnership to grow paid subscriptions and recurring revenue. Product features include a country-specific recommendation engine and integration with Echo Nest’s Rosetta Stone; the company says today’s work will boost discovery and curation. Management is preparing to unveil a new user interface and other features and is exploring expansion into the U.S. market. Deezer aims to capture roughly 5% of the global music market by 2016. Deezer is a music search and discovery engine that pairs comprehensive discovery tools with social features to build a vibrant community of music fans. Formerly known as BlogMusik, the service ran into legal trouble at launch but reached agreements with copyright associations and relaunched as a legitimate free music search engine in August 2007. The company claims over 10 million users across Europe, with more than half located in France, and more than one million mobile app downloads. Deezer is described as one of the most popular music services in Europe and has been linked to rumors of a paid 'Deezer Premium' tier at €9.99 per month. To date the startup has raised approximately €12.2 million in total financing. The additional funding is intended to help strengthen its foothold in Europe and more effectively rival competitors like Spotify.

Total raised

$434M

Funding rounds

5

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Aug 2018