Kobalt Capital, the investment advisor arm of music services firm Kobalt, has raised $600 million in order to acquire new music copyright catalogs. The funding round was led by U.K. railroad pension fund Railpen, along with other backers, and is broken down as $345 million in equity for investors, with the rest in debt.
The fund is separate to Kobalt's core music publishing business, which has been careful to not own copyright as to avoid any conflict of interest with clients. Kobalt Capital was created to give copyright users a path to sell their copyright and earn capital. It launched in 2011 and has spent over $350 million on music copyrights to date, including back catalogs for Steve Winwood, Lindsey Buckingham, the B52's and others.
Kobalt uses its suite of technology and creative services platforms to enhance the value of the catalogs.