London-based music and TV tagging service Shazam is reportedly raising another round of funding for $20 million, VentureBeat reported citing a report by Re/code. Shazam has declined to give any comment on the news. Sources interviewed by Re/code said that the new round places Shazam's valuation at $500 million.
Information from the Shazam website showed that the music discovery app's backers include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Institutional Venture Partners, DN Capital and Acacia Capital Partners. Re/code reported that the investors provided venture funding amounting to $32 million.
Shazam basically gives mobile applications that provides details of a particular song, such as its title, name of the artist, album and links to where the song can be bought. In the past year, the company has increased its efforts to improve its tagging function for television shows and advertisements. Both advertisers and media firms could also find the second screen information in the functionality alluring in their quest to get viewers engaged. On February 10, the company also launched a fresh design for its iPhone app, the report said.
If news about the fundraising is true then the new round occurs less than a year after Carlos Slim's America Movil invested $40 million to Shazam. The deal included a sweet partnership which allows the telecom customers of America Movil to access Shazam, the report said.
Shazam was established in 2002. Without counting the latest rumored round, the startup has already raised $72 million in funding so far. It claims an active user base of 88 million and counts 15 million songs and TV shows tagged on a daily basis, the report said.
Re/code reported that most of Shazam operations depend greatly on the affiliate revenue it gets from Apple, Google and other companies and added that its efforts for TV are still in its nascent stages.
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