Could Deezer be the next unicorn of the streaming music world? A unicorn being a startup valued at more than $1bn, in Silicon Valley lingo that’s caught on worldwide.
The company is seeking a new round of funding that would value it at $1.1bn according to Bloomberg, which suggests that the funding could come from private investment or an IPO.
Its report comes with a warning that “the process is at an early stage and the valuation target may change”.
The last time Deezer raised money was October 2012, when it took $130m from Warner Music Group owner Access Industries and Idinvest Partners. Before that, the company had been relatively restrained, raising a $6.8m series A round in 2008, then $12.5m in 2009.
Compare that $149.3m of total funding to Spotify’s $1.1bn raised over seven rounds since 2008, and you can see why Deezer is comparatively bootstrapped – but also why it might be looking for a larger round now.
Investors will certainly want to poke around Deezer’s growth before granting it unicorn status, though. The company has 16 million monthly active users and six million paying subscribers, although it has often been the subject of speculation concerning how many of the latter got the service bundled into a mobile tariff, leaving them liable to churn away if and when the bundle deal ends or they switch operators.
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