Music discovery app Shazam just got a $40 million boost from telecommunications carrier America Movil.
The two companies inked a deal that will help expand Shazam's presence in the interactive television market, as well as push the development of new products. As part of the arrangement, Mexican businessman and America Movil owner Carlos Slim will make a $40 million investment.
"Shazam is defining a new category of media engagement which combines the power of mobile with traditional broadcast media and advertising to create compelling value added experiences for consumers, content providers and brands," Slim said in a statement. "We are excited to bring this innovation to America Movil subscribers."
The Shazam app — available worldwide for smartphones and feature phones — will also be pre-loaded on mobile devices in Latin America, Billboard reported.
"We are delighted to welcome America Movil as an investor in Shazam as we execute on our mission to enable people to engage with content and brands in the easiest way possible whether they are interacting with television, music or in retail environments," Shazam's executive chairman, Andrew Fisher, said in a statement. "This investment will help support our continued expansion as we seek to become an increasingly important part of people's everyday lives."
The audio-recognition tool already carries a user base of 350 million people globally, a number that has more than doubled since Shazam's last round of funding in 2011, the company said. Meanwhile, Shazam boasts more than $300 million a year worth of sales of digital content via partners like iTunes.
"Shazam's expansion into television has moved the company into an entirely new phase of growth with interactive advertising generating new sources of revenue and partnerships with broadcasters encouraging a broader group of people to use Shazam more frequently," new CEO Rich Riley said in a statement.
Shazam got a mobile boost this year, first revamping its iPad and Android tablet apps in February, with a redesigned home screen and improved layout for TV and music tag results. Three months later, the iPad version debuted the Auto-Tagging feature and a new way to browse what friends have been watching and listening to. By the end of May, the music discovery app landed in the Windows Phone 8 app store.
Slim, meanwhile, relinquished his "world's richest" crown this year to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
For more, see PCMag's June 2012 interview with Fisher, as well as our review of Shazam for iPad and the slideshow above.
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