Sources: Spotify Takes Investment From Sean Parker At Founders Fund
We do not know the size of the investement; however, we believe it may have been a token amount to get Parker’s involvement in the company. The investment was likely done at the same €200 million valuation as the round Spotify raised in late 2009.
This is the first U.S. investor in Spotify, and the service is only available in some European countries. A U.S. launch has been broadly anticipated for months.
We’ve also heard this was a competitive round and a number of U.S. venture funds were interested. Parker, with his ties to Facebook and his experience in early P2P music sharing via Napster, is likely the winner for his strong strategic potential.
In January we reported that Spotify had been in talks with Google over integration with Android for their U.S. launch. When Spotify does launch in the U.S. (assuming it does), we expect them to have a large U.S. partner alongside them. Google, Facebook and Microsoft are all likely to be talking to them, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see one or more of them sign a partnership.