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Spotify closes its latest funding round with over half a billion

By | Published on Wednesday 10 June 2015

Spotify

Spotify has closed its latest funding round with over half a billion in the pot. Reports originally suggested that the streaming music firm was seeking in the region of $400 million to fuel its global expansion, but according to the Wall Street Journal $526 million has been raised, with $115 coming from Nordic tel co TeliaSonera AB.

The fundraising values the Spotify business at a neat $8.53 billion, more than double the current market cap of the publicly listed Pandora. Other investors chipping into the latest round reportedly include Halcyon Asset Management, GSV Capital, DE Shaw & Co., Technology Crossover Ventures, Northzone, P Schoenfeld Asset Management, Goldman Sachs and Abu Dhabi’s sovereign-wealth fund.

Spotify is still focused on increasing its global reach and, of course, recently announced an overhaul of its platform bring in video and speech-based content. Plus with Apple expected to spend big time on the marketing push for its new streaming service, there is speculation that Spotify might be forced to do more above-the-line marketing, rather than relying on artist alliances, tel co partners and word-of-mouth to hook in new users.



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