US-based music app developer Smule has secured $20m in funding from Times Bridge, a corporate venture capital subsidiary of media conglomerate Bennett Coleman & Co (BCC), TechCrunch has reported.
Founded in 2008, Smule has created a range of social music apps that include an eponymous karaoke app, a digital MP3 store called Songify and a tool known as Magic Piano that allows users to create piano sounds by touching the screen of their mobile device.
India-based BCC will help Smule access musicians and build marketing campaigns in the corporate’s home country in order to strengthen Smule’s profile in what is already its second largest market outside the US.
Smule has now accumulated a total of $165m in funding, having received $54m in a May 2017 round led by internet company Tencent that valued it at $604m.
Adams Street Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Floodgate, Franklin Templeton, Shasta Ventures and Granite Ventures also backed the 2017 round. The company had raised $22.2m from undisclosed investors the year before, according to a regulatory filing.