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The Company will use the funding to expand the team, scale the infrastructure and rollout the service across the music industry.
Most record labels and music publishers make 90% of their revenue from just 10% of their songs. Beatroot uses metadata and algorithms to help these companies monetize the under-utilised 90% of their music catalogue.
The Beatroot platform processes large catalogues of tracks, extracts data from the music and adds information from third party sources. Every track and artist is enriched with a detailed set of data points, which can be used to dramatically improve search, discovery and the relevancy of recommendations.
The platform will give record labels and music publishers unmatched visibility of their IP. This will enable them to generate multiple revenue streams from their catalogue including brand partnerships, improved synchronization for films, games and advertising, launch niche apps, generate playlists for streaming services, and rapidly test new ideas.
The platform is due to launch at the end of August, after closed BETA trials going ahead with Domino Records, Sentric Music, Universal Music Group and Woodwork Music.
The Company was founded in August 2015, by two experienced entrepreneurs, Miles Galliford and Chris Garratt.
Co-Founder and Product Director, Chris Garrett commented: “We are delighted to receive the investment from The North West Fund. Like us, they believe that after 10 years of tough times, the music industry is now entering an exciting period of growth. Doug Morris, CEO of Sony Music, was recently quoted as predicting that the music sector will make a full recovery back to the $30bn industry it was in 2005. We’re looking forward to working with our clients and partners to be part of this rapid growth.”
Rupert Wingate-Saul, Investment Manager, AXM Venture Capital, which manages The North West Fund for Digital & Creative, added: “The Beatroot team have a strong track record of creating innovative solutions that solve industry-specific problems. When looking for investments we like to find solutions which will become part of their clients’ daily workflow. We believe the Beatroot platform will achieve this goal.”
The North West Fund is financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Investment Bank (EIB)
For The North West Fund
Catherine Melling
The North West Fund
catherine.melling[.]thenorthwestfund.co.uk
01925 443 766
About AXM Venture Capital
AXM Venture Capital is an experienced fund manager for digital, media, and creative industries investments. It has offices in Manchester, Liverpool and London. In addition to The North West Fund for Digital & Creative, it currently manages two London-based digital and creative funds.
The North West Fund for Digital & Creative provides finance from £50,000 to £1.5m to businesses seeking funding to support a broad range of needs from start-up and early stage development through to expansion plans for trading businesses. In return, the Fund will require an equity share in the business. For further information, contact AXM Venture Capital on 0161 408 1818 / 0151 324 1919.
The North West Fund
The North West Fund is a substantial investment fund established to provide debt and equity funding (from £25,000 to £2 million) to small and medium sized enterprises based in, or relocating to, the North West of England. The Fund addresses an identified gap in the lending, venture capital and private equity markets. It is one of the largest public sector funds of its kind in Europe and the largest in the UK.
The North West Fund is financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) under the European Commission's Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium Enterprises Initiative otherwise known as the JEREMIE programme.
The North West Fund is the umbrella name for the seven funds that are available to businesses in the form of debt, equity and quasi-equity. These funds are managed by individual fund managers. Each fund manager has a mandate to invest their allocation into the specific product or sector they manage, by 31st December 2015.
The fund managers are under contract with North West Business Finance Limited (NWBF), which is a private, not for profit company, established to oversee the delivery of The North West Fund.
The North West Fund has now invested over £125m in more than 375 businesses. Further funding has also been earmarked to support these businesses as they grow and many more new investments are planned throughout 2015.
European structure, JEREMIE
The JEREMIE initiative offers EU Member States, through their national or regional Managing Authorities, the opportunity to use part of their European Union (EU) Structural Funds to finance small and medium-sized enterprises by means of equity, loans or guarantees, through a revolving umbrella fund. The initiative was developed by the European Commission and the European Investment Fund, which is part of the European Investment Bank Group.
JEREMIE provides for a range of debt and equity financial tools to obtain the most appropriate allocation of funds according to national, regional or local requirements.
ERDF in the Northwest
ERDF is making a real difference to people and businesses in the North West. The current ERDF programme, which is worth €755 million, is enhancing the competitiveness of the region’s economy by supporting growth in enterprise and employment.
ERDF in the North West is managed by the Department for Communities and Local Government.
EIB
The EIB is the European Union’s long-term financing institution and, provides long-term finance for capital projects promoting European economic objectives. The EIB made its first loan in the UK in 1973 and since then has lent around €75bn for investment in the UK economy. In the years from 2004 to 2009, the EIB financed investment in the UK totalling some € 23.5bn - GBP 17.5 billion.
Miles Galliford, Beatroot CEO/Co-founder, has co-founded two internet businesses, one of which he was recently sold. He has also worked for and sat on the Board of a further three Internet startups, all of which are prospering today. Prior to this he worked for BT, Dow Jones and IPC.
Chris Garrett, Beatroot Product Director/Co-founder, started his first web development agency at the age of 16 which he sold three years later. In 2012 he founded a new web agency, Abstraktion, which attracted an amazing roster of clients including the BBC, Channel 4, Sport England, Universal Music, Domino Music, The Telegraph, Future Publishing, Toyota and Google.
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sabine[.]beatroot.com 
