A shot of Nairobi, Kenya, from the Kenyatta International Conference Centre. Photo Credit: Bobokine
African music streaming service Mdundo has generated approximately $6.3 million from its IPO on Denmark’s Nasdaq First North stock exchange.
Mdundo recently detailed the immense success of its Nasdaq Denmark listing, which raised more than $6.33 million (40 million Danish Krone) and was oversubscribed by about 111 percent. As part of the IPO, four million shares became available to investors at roughly $1.58 (10 Danish Krone) apiece, though the stock’s per-share value fell to about $1.38 (8.7 Danish Krone) during today’s trading hours.
Predictably, the Copenhagen, Denmark- and Nairobi, Kenya-headquartered streaming platform made a point of highlighting its user stats prior to going public. The service – which solely features legal music and assures that revenue is “equally shared with the content owners” – allows users to stream and download from its 1.63 million-track library (encompassing the works of some 60,000 African artists).
Mdundo disclosed the latter two figures in June, in addition to noting that its total monthly active users (MAUs) had increased to 5.03 million – a 172 percent jump from June 2019.
Chiefly focusing on 15 nations (including an especially robust promotional effort in East Africa’s Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, as well as West Africa’s Ghana and Nigeria), the seven-year-old entity is looking to capitalize upon Africa’s fast-growing technological sphere and music industry.
Smartphone ownership and internet access are quickly rising in Africa, and 2020 has seen a number of big-name companies and professionals move to establish a market presence in the 54-nation continent. Boomplay, Africa’s largest music streaming platform, inked licensing deals with the Big Three record labels and Merlin in 2019, en route to elevating its subscribership past 62 million by yearend.
Warner Music Group, for its part, closed a major agreement with digital music hub Africori back in April, including an investment and a multifaceted promotional deal. Apple Music quietly debuted a “stream local” feature in Africa during that same month, besides going live in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Libya, Morocco, the Ivory Coast, Gabon, Rwanda, and Zambia. Apple Music is now available to residents of 167 nations around the globe.
And in late May, less than 12 months after continuing its years-long African expansion by partnering with Nigeria’s uduX Music, Universal Music Group established Def Jam Africa. The Johannesburg, South Africa- and Lagos, Nigeria-headquartered division works to sign and develop artists from Africa, which the U.N. estimates has a total population in excess of 1.35 billion.