Israeli music teaching company JoyTunes  yesterday announced the completion of a $10 million financing round from leading investment funds, including growth fund Insight Venture Partners, one of the largest funds in the US; the Aleph fund, a previous investor in the company; and Genesis Partners. The CEO of Yelp, who himself uses JoyTunes' products, also invested. JoyTunes has now raised $17 million to date. "We're not looking for an exit; we plan to expand into new markets and perhaps into new spheres. We want to become the Netflix of music and quality of life," JoyTunes cofounder and CEO Yuval Kaminka told "Globes."

JoyTunes reports 500% growth in revenue over the past year. The company did not give a figure for its revenue, but sources estimated its revenue at over $10 million. JoyTunes says that its revenue is based on usage payments from millions of customers, whose numbers are growing rapidly. The company's rapid growth is arousing interest among many investors; Kaminka says there have also been a number of acquisition offers, which the company rejected. "We're building ourselves as a service for the whole family. As a business vision, we'll be like Netflix - a subscription service in every home. This is a very big business vision and that's what we're aiming at. We're working very hard to make it happen."

JoyTunes' product is an applications for learning to play a large selection of instruments with an attractive user experience. A corresponding product for music teachers provides exercises for students, while a third product is for teaching toddlers to play an instrument. Kaminka says that these products are aimed at the global lifestyle applications market. "This is a product for someone who says, 'At night, when my kids are sleeping, I want to put on my earphones and jam with Bob Dylan.' There's something life affirming in this, like people who want to study yoga or a second language with Dulingo."

JoyTunes was founded by CTO Roey Izkovsky and brothers Yuval and musical director Yigal Kaminka. The company has 26 employees, including developers, musical designers, and education personnel. JoyTunes is located in Tel Aviv and recently rented more offices in the city. "We're a very small team with impressive performance. We're in the growth stages. We've been making a profit for quite some time, but we're on the move worldwide. We've ambitious about how big we want it to be," Yuval Kaminka says. He adds that the money raised by the company will be used to build independent teams for developing new capabilities of the applications.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 25, 2018

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