Sweden’s Alecta has invested SEK 300m in Epidemic Sound an unlisted company that operates a digital music platform.

Epidemic Sound was founded in 2009 in Stockholm and has offices in six major cities worldwide. The company's business concept is to buy music from music creators, which they then resell through a subscription service to other companies. In this way, they simplify the handling of music rights issues for everyone who creates different types of content.

“We follow a careful process to evaluate the potential for each company we choose to invest in. Epidemic Sound meets many of the criteria we are looking for – they are a global market leader in their industry, have strong corporate management, great growth potential and an ability to scale up their business profitably,” Alecta portfolio managers Marcus Lüttgen and Leif Törnvall said.

“Alecta is a long-term investor and we believe that Epidemic Sound and the company's management will create value for our customers at a level above the rest of the stock market for many years to come.”

Alecta's investment is part of Epidemic Sound's latest financing round of SEK 4.6bn, where the company was valued at a total of SEK 11.9bn. Other investors in this round are AMF, Blackstone, EQT and TIN Fonder. Epidemic Sound will use the new funds to continue investing in finding new customers, improving the user experience, expanding internationally, strengthening its local presence and expanding its music catalogue.

“Through the investment in Epidemic Sound, we continue to build up a portfolio of holdings in unlisted companies with great growth potential. In recent years, we have made investments in Anticimex, Apotea and IVC Evidensia and are looking for more attractive investments in this area,” Alecta deputy CEO, Hans Sterte said.

“For unlisted companies, Alecta acts as an independent financial partner, and has the ability to be an investor for a long time. So far, unlisted investments have had very good value growth that will contribute to giving our customers a secure pension in the future.”

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