Social sound platform SoundCloud raised a reported $50 million in a fundraising round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers with participation from GGV Capital. Mary Meeker, partner at KPCB, will take a board observer seat at the company.
SoundCloud will use the funds to expand more rapidly. The two new investors join existing B-Round investors Union Square Ventures and Index Ventures, and A-Round investor Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures.
“SoundCloud has seen exponential growth this year in terms of users and greatly evolved our product offerings,” Alexander Ljung, founder and chief executive officer, said. “With Kleiner Perkins’ impeccable track record for recognizing and investing in companies with a long-term view, and their understanding and support for the potential of sound, we couldn’t be more excited about working together.”
Meeker also serves on the board of Square and is involved in KPCB’s investments in One King’s Lane, Groupon, Legalzoom, Spotify, Trendyol, 360buy.com and Waze.
“Mary Meeker showed very clearly in her recent State of the Internet 2011 presentation that sound is the next frontier on the Web,” Ljung said. “That vision, along with spotlighting mobile and international markets, made it clear that Kleiner Perkins aligns with SoundCloud’s mission.”
SoundCloud is a social sound creation and sharing platform whose users create, record, promote and share all kinds of audio. The company was launched in 2008 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss.
Related links:
http://www.kpcb.com/partner/mary-meeker
http://soundcloud.com/press/releases/2012/01/02/kleiner-perkins
http://eu.techcrunch.com/2012/01/02/soundcloud-raises-50-million-round-led-by-kleiner-perkins
Photo by Flickr user tvol/Timothy Vollmer, used under Creative Commons license
Well it helps that Soundcloud works in html5 browsers and devices…