Is Spotify worth $3.5bn? That’s thought to be the company’s desired valuation for a new funding round of hundreds of millions of dollars, according to Business Insider and the Financial Times – each with their own multiple sources. Business Insider claim the funding would value Spotify at $3.5bn, following its $100m+ round in 2011 that valued the company at $1bn. However, its report suggests some big VCs like Andreessen Horowitz have already passed on the round, spooked by Spotify’s dependence on licensing deals. The FT ups the potential valuation to $4bn, and quotes one of its unnamed sources as saying the round will be “hundreds of millions of dollars” to build what the FT describes as ‘a financial war chest in preparation for future licensing negotiations with the music industry’. As Digital Music News notes, MP3tunes founder Michael Robertson was first to predict a new funding round back in January, telling the PHO industry mailing list that “My sources say Spotify is seeking more capital.”
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Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…