Create Music Group has completed its latest funding round, securing over USD $450 million of new equity and debt capital to support its continued expansion.
The round values Los Angeles-headquartered Create at $2.2 billion.
The company remains majority-owned by its founders, with institutional investors Ares Management, 2 Mile, and Flexpoint Ford each holding minority stakes.
The financing round also included expanded bank group support, with Truist Securities and Banc of California serving as Joint Lead Arrangers.
Create’s latest fundraise comes nearly two years after it secured a $165 million minority investment round led by private equity firm Flexpoint Ford, which valued the company at $1 billion at the time.
The acquisitive company confirmed on Wednesday (March 4) that it has invested more than $500 million across acquisitions, advances, and other growth initiatives over the past 12 months alone. Create said that this M&A activity has positioned it “as a scaled co-owner and operator of enduring music businesses with global reach”.
The company’s subsidiaries include broke., the “marketing-driven record label” that Create says “has rapidly rewritten the playbook on artist discovery, building global chart dominance across multiple major genres”.
Create acquired independent electronic label Monstercat in May 2025, Berlin-based label group !K7 Music in April 2025, and UK dance music company Cr2 Records in December 2025, while striking catalog buyouts with the likes of Pack Records and Deadmau5.
The latest funding milestone also comes on the heels of Create’s strategic investment in Vancouver-headquartered indie Nettwerk Music Group.
As reported by MBW last month, as part of the arrangement, CMG’s Create Capital is investing over USD $300 million into Nettwerk, and said it will also provide access to “substantial follow-on capital and support services thereafter”.
In a press release, the parties stated that the deal will allow the Nettwerk management team to increase its ownership stake, enabling the Canadian firm to retain its “identity and independence”.
MBW understands the deal will see Create taking a controlling position in Nettwerk’s music IP portfolio, while Nettwerk itself remains independently owned and operated.
Create said in a statement today (March 4) that the Nettwerk deal “exemplifies” the company’s strategy of “backing culturally defining labels and entrepreneurs and helping them build even more substantial businesses on top of the Create platform”.
“At a time when the future of media, technology, and creative ownership is being rewritten, we’ve become the definitive platform for the music and media industries’ most visionary entrepreneurs.”
Jonathan Strauss, Create Music Group
Jonathan Strauss, co-founder and CEO, Create Music Group, said: “At a time when the future of media, technology, and creative ownership is being rewritten, we’ve become the definitive platform for the music and media industries’ most visionary entrepreneurs.
“This capital will not only accelerate our roadmap, expanding our footprint in media, IP and technology, but also empower our partners to build generational businesses that redefine culture and value creation across the global entertainment ecosystem.”
“The newly raised capital will support continued acquisitions, strategic investments, technology development and global expansion.”
Will Smith, Create Music Group
Will Smith, Chief Financial Officer at Create Music Group, added: “The music industry is as dynamic as it has ever been, with rapid growth in new consumption channels and means of creation, which is creating vast opportunities for agile, digital-first companies to reshape the status quo.
“In that context, this fundraise is an exciting milestone for Create and the product of a lot of hard work from our entire team over many years.
“The newly raised capital will support continued acquisitions, strategic investments, technology development and global expansion – reinforcing Create’s long-term commitment to building the industry-defining platform for the world’s leading music businesses and entrepreneurs.”
Founded in 2015, Create describes itself as “a digitally native music, media and technology platform that has evolved into one of the industry’s most active owner-operators of culturally influential labels, catalogs and creative businesses”.
The company claims that, “by combining proprietary technology, data analytics, digital marketing expertise and strategic capital deployment, Create has become the strategic partner of choice for leading music labels, artists and catalog owners”.
Elsewhere at Create, last month, it entered into a “multi-million dollar” joint venture label called dai + drm with Romel Murphy, manager of AI musician Xania Monet.
Create Music Group also appointed Mitchell Shymansky as Chief Data & Technology Officer, the company announced last month.
In November, The Circuit Group launched $500m+ music investment fund backed by Create Music Group.Music Business Worldwide