Spotify, the Sweden-based music streaming platform backed by telecommunications company TeliaSonera and beverage producer Coca-Cola, is looking to raise $500m in convertible debt financing, Svenska Dagbladet reported on Wednesday.
The company will offer 4% notes convertible to equity in the event of an initial public offering at a discount to the IPO price, according to bank documents. The discount will work out to 17.5% if Spotify floats in the next year and will drop by 2.5% in each year thereafter.
Founded in 2006, Spotify runs an online music streaming platform that had accumulated 75 million active users and 20 million paying subscribers as of June 2015, effectively doubling the paid subscriber figure in just over a year.
Spotify is however operating in a crowded market, competing not only against well-funded competitors like Deezer or Pandora but also services run by massive corporations such as Apple, Google and soon, according to reports this week, Amazon.
Although it has not officially disclosed details of the convertible note financing or where it plans to invest the cash, it is notable that Spotify is launching its video and podcast service on mobile devices this week.
The company last raised cash when it closed a $526m round at an $8.5bn post-money valuation in June 2015, with TeliaSonera paying $115m for a 1.4% stake.
Goldman Sachs, Baillie Gifford, Landsdowne Partners, Rinkelberg Capital, Senvest Capital, DCM, Halcyon Asset Management, GSV Capital, DE Shaw, Technology Crossover Ventures, Northzone and P Schoenfeld Asset Management also took part in the series G round.
Spotify has so far raised approximately $1.06bn in total funding from an investor base also including Coca-Cola, Fidelity Investments, DST Global, Wellington Partners, Horizons Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, Accel Partners, 137 Ventures, Creandum and Lakestar.