Audoo Series-A

This is the Audoo pitch deck to raise a $7m series-a round in 2020.

About

Audoo is creating a royalty revolution to ensure accuracy is delivered for artists, composers, labels, license payers and royalty societies alike.

Audoo, a royalties platform that ensures artists get reimbursed when their music is played in public, just raised some serious money, money, money with the help of ABBA star Björn Ulvaeus.

Ryan Edwards, CEO and co-founder, recently announced the firm had won $7 million (or £5.2 million) in a Series A funding round backed by the ABBA frontman and existing investor Tileyard London.

Edwards himself once had a dream — and a song to sing — as frontman of rock’n’roll band The Lines, but went on to combine his passion for music with his love of technology.

The music copyright business is a winner-takes-it-all industry, with senior industry figures valuing it at around $30 billion globally. Radio stations and venues (such as stores, bars, and restaurants) usually have to buy licenses from PROs (performance rights organizations) in order to play music.

But while ticking off songs on the radio is fairly straightforward for PROs, it’s harder to keep track of what music different venues play in public. That’s where Audoo comes in.

Headquartered in King’s Cross, London, about three miles north of Waterloo, Audoo says its “audio meters” – small microphones capable of recognising songs – will allow PROs to effectively keep tabs on the music their clients broadcast.

Ulvaeus, the famed singer-songwriter who also produced both “Mamma Mia!” movies, had already sent out an SOS for such technology in a TV interview before he became aware of Audoo.

“A friend phoned me and said, ‘Have you seen Björn’s basically just described your company?'” Edwards told Business Insider. “We made a few phone calls and managed to get in front of him.

Funding Rounds

Announced Date	Transaction Name	Number of Investors	Money Raised	Lead Investors
Sep 10, 2020	Series A – Audoo	2	£5.2M	—
Feb 5, 2020	Equity Crowdfunding – Audoo	—	£250K	—
May 1, 2019	Seed Round – Audoo	5	£1.2M	—
Oct 1, 2018	Pre Seed Round – Audoo	—	£150K	—

Pitch Deck Review Summary

 

Structured Summary Review

I’m not writing a full review. The deck is a hard fail. The text is impossible to read, so I am not going to read it.

They raised, £14M and golly knows how. The money is from a family office I don’t think I know, so um, yeah, if you can BS you can get these guys to write large checks with dumb terms. I have had clients who have done this which is why I know it is possible.

Slide by Slide Review

The cover is fine but the tagline is a bit bizarre.

I hate quotes in decks. Don’t use them.

Don’t use a coloured background. Stick to boring white. Maybe a light grey. Be boring.

They have some of the right ideas around how to structure a slide, but it’s not executed well.

Headers are bad.

F-me the font size is just terrible across the board. I wonder if they think hipster knob-ends who walk around with ironic monocles are their target market as that nonce monocle is the only magnifying opportunity one would have to read this deck.

The only thing I have read on this slide is The Problem. That’s the founders’ fault, not mine.

Another horrible slide to look at. This is the equivalent of reading contraception to pitch decks.

Why is the header french-kissing the roof of the slide? I just don’t get why the text is so small. If it is not legible I am not going to read it.

Could be interesting but it’s too much effort to try and read.

It doesn’t matter what they do, if it is hard to read, investors won’t. Focus on how you communicate on a slide.

You do not need an appendix if you do your deck well. I have a cool tip for FAW slides, I call them sliders. I teach my clients how to use them in meetings with investors and it works well.

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