An aerial shot of New York City, where The Raine Group is headquartered. Photo Credit: Patrick Tomasso
The Raine Group has officially announced an over $760 million “Partners IV” fund, which the New York City-headquartered firm intends to invest in “sports, media, entertainment and gaming” businesses.
Raine Group higher-ups formally revealed the Partners IV fund – and plans to back “growth-stage TMT companies” – via a general release today. Now with close to $4 billion in assets under management, according to execs, Raine previously invested in SoundCloud (which is looking to achieve profitability by 2023’s end), Lollapalooza producer C3 Presents, Rock the Bells, and Amuse, to name some.
And while time will tell which companies the just-detailed tranche reaches, Raine indicated that the Partners IV fund had supported London-based Tripledot Studios, the developer behind casual mobile games such as Woodoku and Word Hop, in its first investment.
In a statement, Raine partner and head of investor relations and fundraising Sherri Williams touched upon a desire to continue “investing in transformative growth companies.”
“We appreciate this vote of confidence from our limited partners and we look forward to building on our firm’s strong track record of investing in transformative growth companies within our core sectors of focus,” relayed the JP Morgan and Rothschild vet Williams. “We look forward to working with our investors and portfolio companies to achieve their full potential.”
Raine’s Partners IV announcement arrives about three weeks after ESH Acquisition Corp. debuted on the public market. Now equipped with $100 million or so, the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) is targeting a potential music industry buyout.
To be sure, the SPAC in regulatory filings made clear that it may explore the purchase of “concert venues, theaters, cinemas, record labels, music and television streaming services, production companies and publishing houses.” The entity’s directors include 1916 Enterprises’ Jonathan Gordon, with Audiosocket’s Edward Ackerley having signed on as an advisor.
In other investment and acquisition news, June (and the closing days of May) brought the sale of Soundtrap (from Spotify and back to its founders), Arro Media, and Aptone, to name some, as Warner Music Group took a stake in Hungarian label Magneoton. (The IFPI kicked off June by touting a court-ordered block on certain BitTorrent sites in nearby Bulgaria.)
Meanwhile, music industry companies including Beyond Music, virtual concert platform VARK, artificial intelligence streaming service WAVs AI, Captions, and “premium ticketing marketplace” Seat Unique announced multimillion-dollar raises on the month.
