SoundCloud: $75 Million From SiriusXM And $200 Million In Forward Revenue Run Rate

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 13, 2020
  • SiriusXM has invested $75 million in SoundCloud, which is known as the world’s largest open audio platform

SoundCloud and SiriusXM Holdings recently announced that SiriusXM has invested $75 million in SoundCloud, which is known as the world’s largest open audio platform. And with this funding round, SoundCloud is going to accelerate its product development and enhance the services that fuel its global community of creators and listeners.

“SoundCloud’s three consecutive years of strong financial performance directly reflect the success of our creator-led growth strategy,” said Kerry Trainor, Chief Executive Officer, SoundCloud. “We have an exciting roadmap focused on deepening the connections between creators and listeners that fuel creator discovery, career growth and the evolution of music culture on SoundCloud. We’ve built a great relationship with SiriusXM through our highly successful Pandora ad sales agreement, and their investment gives us added capital flexibility to accelerate our vision and take advantage of strategic opportunities as they arise.”

This minority investment follows the successful ad sales relationship between SoundCloud and SiriusXM subsidiary Pandora. And the agreement enables advertisers and brands to purchase SoundCloud’s U.S. ad inventory directly through Pandora, which leverages the company’s direct sales capabilities, targeting data, and audio programmatic platform. And together, SoundCloud and Pandora’s combined U.S. audience platforms reaches over 100 million unique listeners thus creating the largest digital audio advertising marketplace.

“SoundCloud’s unique platform serves a vital role in today’s music ecosystem where new artists are discovered and build their fan base, and established artists experiment and connect directly with their fans in highly effective ways,” added Jim Meyer, Chief Executive Officer at SiriusXM. “We admire SoundCloud’s loyal and growing audience, its offering for creators, and its reputation and popularity in global music communities. We believe this is another opportunity to continue creating value for SiriusXM stockholders by investing in expanding digital audio platforms.”

SoundCloud has been known as a global accelerator for music culture and grew its business through the introduction of new products, services, and partnerships that empower audio creators and listener discovery. Plus its creator-driven platform continues to be the first place creators share their audio with the world and the first place listeners discover what’s next in music. Some of the artists that started their careers on SoundCloud include Billie Eilish, Post Malone, Bad Bunny, Khalid, and Lil Tecca.

Last year, SoundCloud set all-time highs for platform engagement, creators heard, subscribers, and revenue. And the company exited the year with its strongest financial performance in its history as it accelerated to a $200 million forward revenue run-rate for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2019.

As part of the agreement, SiriusXM purchased $75 million of securities for a minority investment and the SoundCloud Board of Directors will expand to include two individuals designated by SiriusXM.