Australian music database company Jaxsta says it has raised AUD $3 million (USD $2.04 million) through a share placement that has made one of Australia’s most prominent tech moguls a major shareholder.
Jaxsta plans to use the money to support its recent expansion efforts, which include the rollout of online record store Vinyl.com and the recent acquisition of Vampr – the app dubbed as “Linkedin for creatives”.
Jaxsta says it will also use the new funding to drive R&D into AI technology focused on “optimizing the customer experience.”
Jaxsta, which describes itself as “the world’s only official music credit database,” issued 75 million shares at a price of AUD $0.04 per share, a 24% discount on its closing price as of June 13.
Its stock closed at AUD $0.056 on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) on Thursday (June 22).
The share placement resulted in Australian tech billionaire Richard White becoming a major shareholder in Jaxsta, with a 9.64% share, the company said in a statement.
White is the founder of WiseTech Global, a developer of software for logistics companies. He is estimated by Forbes to be worth $6.7 billion.
“We are thrilled to welcome Richard as a cornerstone investor in Jaxsta. His investment and support validate the significant strides we have made and our positive outlook moving forward,” said Jaxsta Chair Linda Jenkinson.
Founded in 2015 by Jacqui Louez Schoorl and Louis Schoorl, Jaxsta has built a database of 341 million deep-linked music credits across 107 million pages, sourced through partnerships with more than 350 partners, including record labels, publishers and industry groups. Among them are Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group.
Jaxsta was awarded the honor “Master of Metadata” at the Music Business Association’s 2023 Bizzy Awards. The award is given to a company that has had “a significant impact in the area of data processing, credit clarification, streamlining or otherwise promoting clean data and best practices.”
The company is currently headed up by CEO Beth Appleton, formerly of Warner Music Australia.
Jaxsta has been engaged in expansion efforts on a number of fronts. It recently launched Vinyl.com, an online record store that capitalizes on the renewed popularity of physical music formats, particularly vinyl. The store incorporates Jaxsta’s immense music database, providing verified creative contributions metadata on all its albums.
Earlier this year, Jaxsta acquired Vampr, the app for musicians and artists dubbed “LInkedin for creatives.” Launched in 2016, the app aims to help creatives find people to work with, create new works and monetize them through the app’s features. Jaxsta said the acquisition expanded its community by 1.3 million creators in 190 countries.
In 2022, the company also formed a data partnership with music distribution platform DistroKid, meaning DistroKid’s 2 million members – among them many independent musicians – can now have their credits added to the Jaxsta database.
“We are thrilled to welcome Richard as a cornerstone investor in Jaxsta. His investment and support validate the significant strides we have made and our positive outlook moving forward.”
Linda Jenkinson, Jaxsta
Also last year, Jaxsta unveiled a new metadata matching tool that enables users of its database to secure lost royalties and source song licenses, among other things. Jaxsta said the “work-to-recording matching technology” will provide songwriters, royalty collection organizations, publishers and others to access licensing information, streamline revenue and manage works they control.
According to Jaxsta, this month’s share placement was led by Red Leaf Securities, and trading in the new shares is expected to commence on June 27.
“These shares will rank equally in all respects with the company’s existing fully paid ordinary shares, ensuring a seamless integration for investors,” the company said in a statement.Music Business Worldwide
