Shazam, a British-based smartphone app developer, received a big boost from across the Atlantic over the weekend when Mexico billionaire Carlos Slim announced he will invest $40 million into the start-up best known for helping music fans identify songs.
Shazam joins Dutch operator KPN and Telekom Austria as one of Slim's few
European company investments, Reuters reported.
One of Shazam's venture capitalist owners, Silicon Valley fund Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, brought Slim in to help the company establish and expand television offerings in western Europe and Latin America.
"Within 18 months we expect TV will significantly outperform the music side [of the business] and that's part of this investment," Andrew Fisher, executive chairman of Shazam, said in a statement.
Shazam, which has more than 350 million users around the world, plans on using audio-recognition software to allow users to tag TV programs and ads, while
offering them related content, the Evening Standard reported.
"Shazam’s expansion into television has moved the company into an entirely new phase of growth with interactive advertising generating new sources of revenue and partnerships with broadcasters encouraging a broader group of people to use Shazam more frequently," Rich Riley, the company's chief executive, said in a statement.
Slim is ranked the world's top billionaire by Forbes magazine with a net worth of $73 billion. He built his fortune from construction, phone, and banking interest. More recently, he has been buying stocks in smaller companies that have potential growth, according to Reuters.
"We are excited to bring this innovation to America Movil subscribers," Slim said in a statement. "Shazam is defining a new category of media engagement which combines the power of mobile with traditional broadcast media and advertising."
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