Musical.ly Investor Bets $17M On Internet Radio

Early investor Goldwater Capital is betting a substantial hunk of the profits it netted when ByteDance acquired Musical.ly on internet radio.  Korean based Spoon Radio will recieve $17 million from Goldwater and Korean investors Softbank Ventures and KB Investment.

Spoon bills itself as the first social radio mobile application. Launched in South Korea in 2013, Spoon enables users to listen to and interact with Spoon DJs and talk radio, as well as, user-generated content.

"The first of it’s kind, the app gives anyone the platform to comfortably share their stories, ideas, favorite music and more while also making it possible to communicate with listeners real-time. It’s like live streaming minus all the hassle. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

The app gives you full control of your experience. You can broadcast anything you want, anytime you want. Conduct daily voice blogs, introduce new music to your listeners, share an interesting story or just talk about anything — there are no limits to what you can express through Spoon!"

Spoon Radio boats 2.5 million downloads and “tens of millions” of audio broadcasts uploaded daily.  Most users are in Korea alongside a growing userbase in Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand.

The new funding will allow the company to expand throughout Asia and beyond.