SoundCloud reportedly raises $50 million; Mary Meeker to observe board
As we've reported, SoundCloud is a company that wants to become the YouTube of audio, and on Tuesday it announced two moves that may help make that happen.
First off, SoundCloud has closed a major funding round. How much? The Berlin company, with an office in San Francisco, isn't saying, but TechCrunch Europe has reported that it may be as much as $50 million.
The new funding round, led by the investment firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers with GGV Capital also contributing, will go toward allowing the site to "expand more rapidly," SoundCloud said in a statement. In June, SoundCloud said that it had more than 5 million users.
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is well-known in the tech industry for investing in Google, Amazon, Zynga and other high-profile companies.
Secondly, Mary Meeker, a renowned tech analyst and partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, is taking an "observer seat" with SoundCloud's board of directors.
Meeker currently sits on the board of directors at mobile payment startup Square and is "actively involved" in the firm's investments in Groupon, Legalzoom, Waze, 360buy.com, Spotify, Jawbone, One King's Lane and Trendyol, SoundCloud said.
[Updated Jan. 16, 9:19 a.m.: An earlier version of this post incorrectly started that Meeker was taking a board seat with SoundCloud's board of directors. Meeker is joing SoundCloud's board as a non-voting observer, not as a fully fledged board member, according to the company.]
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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles
Nathan Olivarez-Giles on Google+
Image: A screen shot of Nathan Olivarez-Giles' SoundCloud page. Credit: SoundCloud
