Shazam Entertainment, the UK music software company, has raised $7.5m (€8.6m) from three venture capital funds, in a climate where investors are wary of putting money into mobile phone add-ons.
The three funds are IDG Ventures Europe, the venture capital fund of International Data Group; FLV Fund, a global fund investing in software applications; and Lynx New Media, the venture capital fund set up by Bear Stearns and Virgin Media.
The individual contributions from each backer were not disclosed. Shazam, which is patenting audio pattern recognition technology, will use the funding to launch its music recognition service.
The service, which will launch next year in the UK, comes at a time when the telecoms industry is uncertain about what kind of services will help
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mobile phone companies recover money invested in 3G licences. Analysts have been sceptical about investing in products and services for which there is no proven demand, but Ajay Chowdhury, managing partner at IDG Ventures said: "We believe that music is a powerful driver for mobile applications."
Shazam's premium rate service matches music to a database. The user calls Shazam on a mobile phone, and plays the track into the phone. The service then recognises the artist and song or album title, and sends an SMS to the user's phone offering them the option to buy the recording.
Shazam's technology has a wider appeal in a business-to-business capacity, monitoring music used on the radio and in television programmes to enable artists to claim royalties •
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