Kobalt founder Willard Ahdritz leads seven-figure funding spherical in artist advertising platform un:hurd

Some well-known music business figures have invested in a funding spherical for UK-born artist advertising platform, un:hurd.

The seven-figure spherical has been led by Kobalt Music’s founder and Chairman, Willard Ahdritz.

MBW understands that, related to his un:hurd funding, Ahdritz has launched two new unbiased entities himself – an funding advisory agency (Ahdritz & Co), along with his personal energetic funding car (Ahdritz Holding LLC). Extra information is anticipated from them each quickly. (Final 12 months, Ahdritz was named as an investor in a separate $200 million fund established to again tech startups in Africa.)

In a press launch issued this week, un:hurd praised Ahdritz’s achievements as Kobalt’s founder, noting: “[He] without end modified the business because it’s identified at this time when he pioneered music as an asset class and constructed the world’s largest indie publishing and artist-first document label… No-one at this time is healthier positioned to know the worth of latest music expertise, placing artists first and main with transparency.”

Becoming a member of Ahdritz within the funding spherical in un:hurd is Hazel Savage – the music tech entrepreneur who final 12 months bought her AI-powered Musiio platform to SoundCloud in a $7 million money deal (plus a major sum in fairness).

Extra traders in un:hurd within the spherical embrace Greatest Nights VC (Jagermeister’s VC arm) and Johan Ahlstrom, amongst others.

Un:hurd says it has labored with over 25,000 artists because the firm launched in 2019, together with acts who’ve gone on to attain vital success, corresponding to Headie One, Jamz Supernova, and SAINt JHN.

The agency claims that its self-serve advertising resolution “helped generate over 10 million streams for artists in 2022”.

Un:hurd’s first spherical of funding got here in 2021, when it raised GBP £250,000.

The app guarantees to assist artists “minimize by the noise” of the glut of releases hitting streaming providers day by day, by providing an algorithm-driven advertising resolution that highlights key digital alternatives for artists seeking to construct their fanbases.

Alex Brees, Founder and CEO of un:hurd stated of the brand new funding spherical: “I’m happy to have the ability to welcome such a implausible wealth of skilled and related traders to un:hurd.

“Our product has made sturdy progress over the past 18 months with a lean crew. We’ve learnt loads about what artists really need and we now have the chance to construct upon our preliminary product launch with some actually thrilling new options.

“Our mission has all the time been to empower artists from all over the world with a data-led, greatest in school advertising platform and I now see this mission as being supercharged with years of business information because of this new fundraise.’

Hazel Savage stated: “As quickly as I noticed the product demo I used to be eager to put money into un:hurd. It was such a stupendous and easy person interface, and clearly fixing an issue for artists. I used to be already accustomed to Alex’s work so it was a win-win.”

Alongside launching their app in 2022, un:hurd received the ADE x Antler start-up competitors, featured on the BBC‘s Dragons Den and had been additionally introduced as Musically si:x finalists.Music Enterprise Worldwide