Connect Music co-founder, president, and CEO George Monger, whose company has raised $80 million. Photo Credit: Connect
Music monetization specialist Connect Music has scored an $80 million raise and set its sights on spearheading an AI-powered buildout.
Memphis-based Connect just recently unveiled that sizable round, which Rockmont Partners and Portland’s Variant Investments led. (Rockmont last year closed a more than $50 million inaugural fund and counts as team members former Warner Music and PwC higher-ups.)
Besides these backers, chief among Connect’s “most ardent supporters and shareholders” is longtime FedEx exec Richard W. Smith, the son of founder Frederick W. Smith. Additionally, the namesake head of “wealth strategies firm” Waddell and Associates (which, like FedEx and Connect, is headquartered in Memphis) sits on Connect’s board.
Co-founded by George Monger in 2020, Connect deals in distribution, publishing admin, promotion, and more, its website shows.
On the “more” front: Beyond its base 80/20 royalty split, the business charges “a slightly higher percentage” when it bankrolls projects, with artists maintaining “100% ownership of” their masters, per the same source.
The six-year-old company’s current clients include Dee Mula (via a partnership with NLess Entertainment), Mike & Keys, Sauce Walka, Don Trip, and Boosie Badazz, with the likes of YTB Fatt and Bread Gang Entertainment having previously worked with Connect.
Returning to the $80 million raise, then, Monger, who doubles as president and CEO, emphasized that the capital will enable an aggressive expansion.
“This investment represents transformational growth capital for Connect Music and the artist partners we serve,” said the former Memphis Symphony Orchestra COO Monger. “It gives us the ability to grow aggressively while staying true to our mission: empowering creators to maximize their earnings while owning their art, their data, and their future.”
Though it perhaps doesn’t need saying in light of the new tranche’s size – and the many players that are actively pursuing IP acquisitions – the forthcoming buildout will focus in part on catalog deals.
(Connect, some will recall, isn’t a stranger to buyouts, having scooped up London’s MTX Music back in 2022. MTX’s own site touts clients such as Lihini, Scarlette Fever, and Lost Society, to name a few.)
In addition to outlining its song rights ambitions, however, the business underscored plans to double down on its licensing efforts and to deploy the initially mentioned “proprietary A.I models to expand opportunities for artists to earn more from their intellectual property.”
