Synchtank raises $5.8m in Series A funding round led by Octopus Ventures – Music Business Worldwide

UK-based Synchtank, a B2B SaaS company that provides asset and rights management and royalty accounting solutions for the music and media industries, has completed a $5.8 million Series A fundraise.

The round was led by Octopus Ventures, with participation from existing management and shareholders.

Synchtank’s latest investment round follows a total of $750,000 seed funding from management, shareholders, and Juno Capital Partners in 2020, bringing the total raised in the past year to $6.6 million.

Octopus Ventures says that it deploys more than £200 million each year across health, fintech, deep tech, consumer and B2B software.

The firm has offices in London and New York with a network of partners across the US and Asia.

With the commercial release of its speciality Royalty accounting platform IRIS at the beginning of 2021, Synchtank says that it now offers an “end-to-end solution, from asset, metadata, and rights management to royalty collection”.

Synchtank’s customers range from independent labels and publishers through to global enterprises such as Warner Music, NFL, Vice, and the majority of Hollywood studios amongst others.

Synchtank says that it is seeing increasing demand in its core music and media segments, and is now looking to strengthen its team, improve and expand upon existing services and features, and grow its customer footprint beyond North America and Europe.

The company also says that this investment marks the start of an ongoing financial partnership with Octopus Ventures, which it says will enable  Synchtank to “continue to build with partners to acquire, consolidate, integrate, and scale a fractured part of the ecosystem into high value services for its clients and partners”.

“We have come a long way as a company with phenomenal progress in the last two years taking the company far beyond its original sync-based business.”

Rory Bernard, Synchtank

Rory Bernard, CEO of Synchtank, commented: “We have come a long way as a company with phenomenal progress in the last two years taking the company far beyond its original sync-based business.

“We now provide the backbone for any modern media company, encompassing every part of their software requirements.

“We are excited to be working with Octopus with their focus and commitment on a long-term strategy in the company, funding not only this current round but also building further finance rounds as music, media and broadcast growth continues to explode, presenting a wealth of opportunities.”

“Rory and the team have huge depth of experience in the industry and we’re excited to support them on their mission as they keep scaling.”

Edward Keelan, Octopus Ventures

Edward Keelan, B2B software investor at Octopus Ventures, added:  “The rapid growth of streaming means the music industry is almost unrecognizable from a decade ago, with huge investment now flowing into rights acquisitions too.

“While this is clearly a positive, it’s also created an explosion of complex data that has become challenging to manage. Synchtank is perfect placed to capitalize on these trends, with a compelling end-to-end solution built on industry-leading technology.

“Ultimately, its platform allows rights holders to unlock more value from their IP, which has helped Synchtank to build an already impressive roster of clients for its stage.

“Rory and the team have huge depth of experience in the industry and we’re excited to support them on their mission as they keep scaling.”

 Music Business Worldwide