Music rights collection startup Kobalt adds another $14M at $789M valuation

Kobalt continues to raise capital in its race to modernize royalty collections. Read more at Tech Crunch.

When he was still at Google Ventures, Bill Maris led a round of funding into music royalty collecting startup Kobalt, to make one of the VC arms bigger bets in the world of digital music. Now that he’s moved on to start another firm, he’s taking a step to re-up his interests in the company. Today, Kobalt announced that Maris’ Section 32 has invested $14 million into Kobalt, in what’s being described as a second installment into Kobalt’s Series D.

That Series D round was originally announced in May of this year as $75 million at a $775 million valuation led by Hearst. Post money, we have confirmed that the company now stands at a $789 million valuation. As part of this investment, Maris is also joining Kobalt’s board.

This continues to be good news for music royalty investors as these disruptors help clean the path toward more transparency on royalty payments.