The music company backed by News Corporation, Intertrust Technologies, the Wellcome Trust and Allen & Co. is reportedly winding down, despite announcing it had raised $77m last year.
An innovative music service set up with the backing of media group News Corporation and other venture investors has reportedly folded before it was launched.
The company’s winding down had led to investor losses of $32m the company’s founder Adam Kidron said according to UK news provider Financial Times on Friday.
The company did not meet performance targets which led to $55m of announced funding of $87m being denied the company, the FT added.
The company announced it has raised $77m last year in a round backed by News Corp, Intertrust Technologies, a digital rights management company, Wellcome Trust, a UK-based charitable foundation, and US-based investment bank Allen & Co.
Jon Miller, chief digital officer for News Corporation, said at the time of last year’s round: "Our additional investment in this business serves as an endorsement of the progress that Beyond Oblivion has made in bringing this innovative new music product to market."
The company raised $10m in April last year according to the portfolio company’s regulatory filing. Beyond had also raised $2m during the previous autumn.
Beyond Oblivion enabled music files to be downloaded and played from an online library and shared between licensed devices, such as music players, mobile phones, computers and pads, with Beyond reporting play-count to rights holders who are paid a royalty every time their music is played – whether or not the file was legally or illegally downloaded, ripped or shared.