Jean-Baptiste Hironde, founder and CEO of MWM. Image: MWM
MWM, a French start-up that has published popular music apps, has raised €50m in Series B funding, which the company will use to diversify its offerings.
On Tuesday (3 March), French start-up MWM announced that it has raised €50m in Series B funding. The round was led by Blisce, Idinvest Partners, Bpifrance and Aglaé Ventures. MWM said that Xavier Neil also joined the round. To date, the business has raised a total of €60m in funding.
The start-up, which is based between Paris and Bordeaux, said that its founders remain majority shareholders of MWM. There are currently 70 employees working for the company, a figure that the firm aims to double by the end of the year with the latest round of funding.
MWM said that it “intends to take full advantage of this new funding round to extend its app offer from music to creativity at large, and to become the next leader across this expanded list of verticals”.
A popular music app publisher
Since the company was founded in 2012, MWM has published 15 different mobile applications that have been downloaded 400m times, collectively. The company develops music apps across different segments such as production, gaming learning and utilities.
Some of the firm’s apps include Beat Maker Pro, Drum Machine, Beat Snap 2, TaoMix 2 and Edjing Mix. Recently, MWM also launched hardware products including a device called Phase, which enables users to turn turntables into digital DJ controllers.
Jean-Baptiste Hironde, founder and CEO of MWM, said: “In 2019, in-app purchases on the App Store generated more than $120bn. This is huge, and represents a great growth opportunity for MWM.”
Hironde explained that the company wants to accelerate its expansion by extending its portfolio beyond music and into other digital creative practices.
“Unleashing people’s creativity has always been close to our heart. In only a few years, we have become a key player in the music app market, which is without a doubt one of the fundamental pillars of the creative industry,” Hironde said.
“Today, we aim to go one step further and position ourselves as the leading provider of the first creative apps suite for all. Creativity is a basic need and we want to share with the world this means of self-expression and foundation of personal development.”
What the investors have to say
Chloé Giard of Idinvest Partners commented: “With more than 400m downloads around the world, MWM already represents an amazing entrepreneurial success story. The team is now looking for greater challenges with the ambitious goal to become the world’s leader in creative apps. We are delighted to back them up in this new stage.”
Alexandre Mars, founder of Blisce, added: “MWM’s mission to make creating more accessible is fully aligned with Blisce’s core belief that it is possible to both have a positive social impact while also creating a solid business with sustainable growth.
“We are proud to support Jean-Baptiste and the entire MWM team in their ambition to expand their offer and go far beyond music to become the world leader in creative applications.”
Benoît Habert of Habert Dassault Finances added: “As an historic MWM investor, we are pleased to welcome renowned actors to invest into this beautiful French company, world leader in music applications.
“Thanks to their understanding of the mechanisms of fast-growing companies and their varied background, they will provide MWM with all the levers to boost its performance and improve its social impact.”
