Collab Capital, a collaborative fund that helps Black founders build sustainable, innovation-centered businesses, recently invested in the music licensing tech startup Music Tech Works. Co-founded by music and media industry veterans Jarrett Hines and Bryson Nobles, the company makes tools to facilitate music licenses.
The investment in Music Tech Works represents Collab Capital’s second to date. “They are tackling a very specific problem for a large evergreen market by replacing antiquated processes with an easy-to-use software solution,” managing partner Barry Givens, who spoke at Urban Tech Connect 2020, said in a public statement.
Givens, along with fellow managing partners Justin Dawkins and Jewel Burks, seek to build the biggest fund for Black founders, shrinking the national racial wealth gap in the process. Currently less than 1% of VC capital goes to Black entrepreneurs.
Music Tech Works has one of the largest rights holder databases in the world with more than 60 million songs, according to the company. Their first product is a music copyright research platform called Rightsholder.io that connects people who want to license music with the rights holders who can grant them a license.
For this curation of must-read innovation and tech news, the Plug In South LA Beat, we’re discovering how the startup could accelerate digital content creation:
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Photo: From left to right, Collab Capital managing partners Justin Dawkins, Jewel Burks, and Barry Givens. Credit: Collab Capital