Growing by more than 1 million customers per week, Shazam approaches 150 million usersLondon, UK - June 22, 2011 - Shazam, the worlds leading mobile discovery company, today announced that it has raised $32 million in new funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) and Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), with existing investor DN Capital participating. The investment will be used to support the companys continued growth and the development of Shazams real-time discovery and sharing App which creates an engaging, interactive mobile commerce platform for brands as it expands into television with Shazam for TV.
Shazam has experienced incredible growth over the last year and established itself as the ultimate mobile App for media discovery and interaction, said Matt Murphy, Partner at KPCB. The recent additions of Shazam Friends, synchronized lyrics in LyricPlay, and Shazam for TV are just the start to expanding the functionality of a magical technology.
With the 150 millionth Shazamer just around the corner, Shazam is on a trajectory to achieve 250 million users within two years and continues to dominate the mobile discovery market.
Over the last 12 months, Shazam has seen a 100% increase in the number of people downloading its mobile application each week, making it an integral part of their life, said Dennis Phelps, General Partner at IVP. With four million tags a day, Shazam is uniquely positioned to capitalize the increasing propensity of consumers to use their mobile devices for discovery, sharing and commerce.
This coveted reach is the reason leading networks such as NBCUniversal and MTV have worked with Shazam to incorporate Shazam for TV into their shows during the last year. With millions of consumers already accustomed to Shazaming for more information, networks and advertisers dont have to invest in establishing a new behavior to further engage with their audience. In fact, according to Google, 72% smartphone owners use their phone while consuming other media like watching TV. By creating Shazamable shows and commercials, networks and brands can give their viewers an unobtrusive second screen experience without interrupting what theyre watching. Additionally, Shazam works with these producers and advertisers to create a rich, interactive experience that gives viewers more information about the shows and products they love rather than just a simple check-in.
Music is still at the core of our DNA and will always remain fundamental to who we are. Our expansion into television is a natural evolution of our technology and we are excited to have delivered the same powerful discovery experience for broadcasting and advertising that people have always loved with music, said Andrew Fisher, CEO of Shazam. Our size and growth is unparalleled in the industry and gives our network and brand partners reach not available with anyone else. This investment will support our continued growth, both organically and through acquisition, as well as the ongoing development of new features and products, keeping us at the forefront of innovation.
Recently, Shazam released its latest enhancement to its premium applications with Shazam LyricPlay in Encore and (SHAZAM) RED on iOS, allowing music lovers to view lyrics synched in real-time to music. Creating a more personal, interactive experience, LyricPlay has multiple themed visualisations giving Shazamers a unique and innovative new way to see lyrics to songs they are tagging, so they can sing-along or just find out the words to the track. Previously, Shazam released Shazam Friends, which allows Shazamers to see a real-time feed of what their friends are tagging.
Shazam has more than 100 employees and is headquartered in London with offices in Palo Alto, New York, Los Angeles and Seoul. The Shazam App is available on iOS, Android, Java, BlackBerry, Windows, Symbian and all other major platforms and is available in more than 30 languages and 200 countries around the world.
For media enquiries: Email: PR@shazamteam.com
About Shazam Entertainment
For further information about Shazam Entertainment visit www.shazam.com and @ShazamNews or follow us on Facebook. For daily music updates follow the Shazam Blog www.shazamers.com and @Shazam
About Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Since its founding in 1972, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has backed entrepreneurs in over 500 ventures, including AOL, Amazon, Citrix, Compaq, Electronic Arts, Genentech, Google, Intuit, Juniper Networks, Netscape, Sun, Symantec, Verisign and Zynga. KPCB portfolio companies employ more than 250,000 people. More than 150 of the firms portfolio companies have gone public. Many other ventures have achieved success through mergers and acquisitions.
About Institutional Venture Partners (IVP)
With $3 billion of committed capital, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) is one of the premier later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms in the United States. The partnership is currently investing IVP XIII, a $750 million later-stage fund focused on investments in rapidly growing media and technology companies. Founded in 1980, IVP has invested in over 300 companies, 86 of which have gone public. IVP has a 30 year IRR of 43.2% and is one of the top performing firms in the industry. IVP specializes in venture growth investments, industry rollups, founder liquidity transactions and select public market investments. Since its inception, IVP investments include such notable companies as ArcSight (HPQ), Aspect Communications, ComScore (SCOR), Concur Technologies (CNQR), Danger (MSFT), Digital River (DRIV), HomeAway, Juniper Networks (JNPR), Kayak, LegalZoom, LivingSocial, MySQL (ORCL), Netflix (NFLX), Polycom (PLCM), Seagate (STX), Synchronoss (SNCR), Tivo (TIVO), Twitter and Zynga. For more information, visit http://www.ivp.com or follow IVP on Twitter: http://twitter.c
