Shazam started life as a mobile service for identifying music playing in the real world, before moving into television and advertising, enabling TV viewers to "tag" what they were watching to get related information and offers.
Now the UK-headquartered company is eyeing overseas expansion with a $40m (£26.9m) investment from Latin American mobile operator group America Movil. The two companies will be working together to raise awareness and usage of Shazam in the region.
The investment follows a $32m funding round in June 2011 involving venture capital firms: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Institutional Venture Partners and DN Capital. Already popular then, Shazam's app has continued to spread since.
Shazam has been used by more than 350m people since its launch in 2002, although its current reach is better reflected in its 70m monthly active users, who tag more than 10m songs, shows and ads a day. Shazam is currently adding more than 2m new users every week.
Its executive chairman and former CEO Andrew Fisher says the new funding isn't a sign of Shazam running out of cash since the last round.
"The impetus for this round was that the business was growing so quickly: faster than it's ever grown before. But revenues are growing very quickly too, so a lot of this growth is being funded organically" Fisher told The Guardian.
Source: The Guardian
