Audio Network Announces Significant Minority Investment by Stripes Group

LONDON, July 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Investment and partnership to enable accelerated growth in music production, global expansion, distribution and rapid technology innovation

Audio Network (the "Company"), the international music company specialising in music for film, television and video, is pleased to announce that Stripes Group, a leading New York-based technology and consumer-focused growth equity firm, has acquired a significant minority shareholding in the Company.

     (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120917/562536 )

     (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130726/630318 )

Stripes Group acquired an approximate 27% equity stake in the Company with the majority of its stake purchased from early angel investors. Audio Network's Founders, Composer Founders and Management Team will maintain more than 80% of their original holdings post the completion of the transaction.

The investment signals the Company's vision and ambition to accelerate the growth of its core business by more rapidly expanding its originally produced and owned music catalogue and by the entry into new international markets.

With this transaction, the Company will further innovate and differentiate their technology platform, enhancing their clients' ability easily to search, discover and use Audio Network's extensive library globally.

With over 1 billion people consuming videos online from millions of producers annually*, the Company sees technology innovation as a key driver to unlocking vast new distribution opportunities for their music.

Andrew Sunnucks, Audio Network Chairman and Co-Founder, said, "We welcome Stripes to the team. It's crucial that we remain a creatively driven business which focuses on providing a valuable service to our customers around the world. As the international audio visual market explodes there is ever more demand for great music and we want to remain at the forefront of a rapidly expanding global opportunity." 

Robert Hurst, Audio Network CEO and Co-Founder, added, "We are particularly delighted that so many of our founding composer and employee shareholders have elected to keep 100% of their shares in the company. The transaction will bring with it many opportunities for the Company's shareholders, staff and composers - the future looks incredibly exciting!"

Dan Marriott, Managing Partner at Stripes Group, said, "We are thrilled to be partnered with Andrew and Robert and the entire Audio Network family. They have built an exceptional value proposition brick by brick for all of their constituents and a rapidly growing profitable company at the same time - a rare combination. One of the most special parts of the story is their culture - customer-centric, and full of creative energy and integrity. The time is right to invest in technology, distribution and music to accelerate their growth and we look forward to lending a hand to the Audio Network team on the road ahead."

*http://informitv.com/news/2013/05/29/ciscoforecastsmassive/

About Audio Network:

With a catalogue of well over 64,000 original music tracks, Audio Network offers a complete music solution by cutting through the traditionally complex and costly processes of licensing music. All high quality tracks are pre-cleared for multiple formats, for the world, forever through their website at http://www.audionetwork.com

This approach allows producers to make content for international distribution, emerging platforms and new media without the need to go through the complicated and expensive process of clearing individual tracks or re-versioning productions. The company supplies music to some major international media clients, including BBC, HBO, MSN, MTV Networks, National Geographic, Ogilvy, and Endemol.

Audio Network owns the rights to their extensive catalogue which covers a full range of music styles from large-scale orchestral to hip hop and from country to rock. This high-quality music is created by its team of established international composers and recorded by major orchestras and artistes including The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Dame Evelyn Glennie OBE and the late Sir John Dankworth CBE.

In addition to supplying original scoring, audio branding, sound design services and working as creative partners alongside over 400 renowned composers, Audio Network now has interests and operations in multiple territories, worldwide.

Listed as one of the UK's fastest growing companies in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 in both 2011 and 2012; and the Sunday Times Profit Track 100 in 2013, Audio Network has also received the Queen's Award for Enterprise: Innovation (Technology) in 2008 and again in 2012 for International Trade. The company has grown its composer team, music catalogue and revenue from its music services every year since its incorporation in 2001 and despite continued reinvestment each year in future growth has grown its profit every year since 2006 when the company first achieved profitability.

About Stripes Group:

Stripes Group is a leading growth equity firm that makes minority and majority equity investments in B2B/B2C Internet, Digital Media, SaaS, Software, Healthcare IT, and Branded Consumer Products businesses. The firm seeks to partner with founder driven, profitable, market-leading companies with proven business models that are generating exceptional growth. For more information on Stripes Group, please visit http://www.stripesgroup.com

SOURCE Audio Network