#South Korea’s Beyond Music Raises $170M for More Catalog Acquisitions

South Korean music investment firm Beyond Music has added $170 million to its war chest for buying rights to evergreen Asian music.

The firm, which was founded in 2021, says the latest funding round brings Beyond Music’s total amount of capital raised to nearly $400 million. It will use the fresh capital to further build out its music catalog, which currently counts over 27,000 songs, according to the company.

Beyond Music was launched in early 2021 by hit songwriter Park Geun-tae alongside entrepreneur Jang-won Lee, known for founding Mafia Company, a digital music platform for Asian music scores. Lee serves as the company’s CEO.

In April 2021, Beyond Music closed a financing round worth 65 billion South Korea Won (about $50 million) from Korean institutional investors including KB Securities, Base Investment and Maven Growth Partners. Another 200 billion won ($160 million) round followed in December 2021, led by private equity firm Praxis Capital.

Praxis Capital again leads the new $170 million round, followed by “several of the largest LPs in Asia,” according to Beyond Music.

“Praxis Capital is well known for its successful track record in the content industry, and brings to the table not just capital, but ‘smart capital’ that delivers insight and shared vision,” said Lee in a statement. “Home to all-time hits comparable to the Bon Jovis, Led Zepplins and Whitney Houstons of Asia, Beyond Music has already established itself as the region’s market leader with the deepest pockets, quantitative disciplines and proven value-up records. Through this investment, we hope to continue our purpose of serving Asia’s most respected artists and their works.”

Beyond Music describes its model as “buy and build,” — acquiring large-scale, high-quality music catalogs and revitalizing those songs through “proactive value enhancement strategies such as remakes, performance marketing and industry partnerships.”