MUSO is a data company that provides a complete and trusted view of global piracy and unlicensed media consumption.

Overview

In 2022, Puma Private Equity deployed £3.2 million of equity into MUSO, a data company that provides a complete and trusted view of global piracy and unlicensed media consumption. The investment will support the establishment of MUSO’s marketing function and build out its sales teams in both the UK and US.

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Key Info
Investment
£3.2 million
Location
London, UK
Sector
Software development
Involvement
2022 onwards

About MUSO

MUSO’s transformative data is fast becoming a must-have data currency for entertainment companies, and is already used by the likes of Amazon Studios, National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO), NOS, Lionsgate, MNRK (formally eOne Music) and Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe.

Its proprietary technology continuously scans and identifies digital piracy across a database of over 150,000 active piracy sites. MUSO monitors all major forms of piracy activity including streaming, web downloads, public and private torrents, and stream rippers.

This data is used by companies across the media and entertainment space to protect their existing IP, develop and execute market-leading content strategies and connect with audiences of unlicensed content.

Scanning more than 25 billion web pages, content is protected from piracy across social media, user-generated content platforms, grey market e-commerce sites, search engines, peer-to-peer and streaming piracy sites.

 

The company’s view

“Piracy remains a significant issue for the entertainment industry, but MUSO’s data enables companies to use it to discover vast, valuable and undiscovered audiences. Our customers are using our data to acquire and commission content, unlock new marketing opportunities, leverage value in licensing negotiations, maximise and optimise windowing strategies. MUSO is a game-changer to the entertainment industry’s approach to piracy. We are turning the tables on two decades of losses and creating value-driven opportunities from this challenging inevitability of digital consumption.

 

“MUSO has made excellent progress since Puma’s investment, with growth in revenue and customer numbers, and hitting product milestones. Our focus for FY24 remains on delivering triple-digit ARR growth and adding to its global enterprise customer logos, which currently include Disney, Amazon, Sony Interactive, PlayStation, Krafton and AMC. We remain the only company in the market that measures audience demand from unlicensed streaming websites and are well resourced to capture significant market share and become omnipresent as the market authority.”

Jane Smith Andy Chatterley, Chief Executive Officer of MUSO

MUSO data screenshot

 

MUSO data screenshot

Our view

“We’re pleased to have completed our investment in MUSO, as we believe the business shows significant growth potential. As on-demand streaming platforms grow and drive a fragmentation of content distribution, global firms like MUSO will play an increasingly important role in monitoring and tackling piracy.”

Jane Smith Harriet Rosethorn, Investment Director at Puma Growth Partners