Overview
Company Description
Background
We are a pioneering MusicTech startup, headquartered in the UK, boasting an international team behind our innovative solutions.
KIFFIX provides a harmonized suite of tools that aid collaboration, promotion and analytics for independent musicians and artists. Our tools also support music industry aligned businesses, such as PR agencies and record labels, at a cost-effective price point to alternative, and often-fragmented, software systems.
After using KIFFIX technology in our own music labels, Soundrive and UFO Recordz, for the last 4 years, we have collaborated with over 10,000 music professionals, and we now have started to monetise this technology.
Our combination of music industry vs. bank-grade tech backgrounds has created a virtual technology stack, with a fully automated build, in a cloud-agnostic manner, allowing for rapid deployment into any public or private cloud environment. We are bringing bank grade tech to music in a way never seen before.
The Problem We Solve
Music creation, collaboration and production has moved online; especially in Electronic Dance Music (EDM). Independent Musicians, Artists, and Producers, as well as music businesses such as Record Labels and PR firms, are using a mix of big-tech solutions which are expensive, fragmented, and complex, and are not aligned to their needs.
KIFFIX is a SaaS solution, a fraction of the cost of purchasing multiple siloed software solutions; the real value is in efficiency and collaboration.
KIFFIX also provides music professionals with analytics on audience engagement, with the ability to drill into, and report on, their social media “buzz”.
KIFFIX is live for Pre-Release Customers on our MVP!
Our Early Adopters get:
Biolinks & ShortLinks - for sharing beautiful links to their social media feed
SmartLinks - for fans to find their music on their DSP of choice (e.g. Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud etc.)
Cloud Storage, Planning & Sharing - with 30Gb to get our members started
Large Files Transfer - 10Gb a day! (5x more that WeTransfer)
Progress To Date
Our MVP suite is live with over 75 paying early adopters customers on our MVP across 6 continents, proving the needs of the market and creating >£6k ARR. This early engagement with key participants has provided evidence of market need, and future horizons of product development.
Of these early adopter customers (D2C) we have also experimented with and successfully signed our first Business Customers (B2); comprised of PR companies and Record Labels, and a socially responsible business partner (Successful Sleeper).
We estimate that 20M+ fans and followers will see the KIFFIX brand online in our Year 1 with only 100 of these early adopters.
KIFFIX early adopters consist of well-known DJ's, Producers, Engineers, Singer/Songwriters and Music Lawyers.
We are legally representation by Jules O’Riordan of Sound Advice LLP (Judge Jules), who is also an early adopter.
The Founders have funded the first phase of the MVP build and operation and will provide funds to operate the platforms until we close our first investment round.
The Market
There are ≈500k EDM professionals, creating, sharing, storing, streaming and selling online.
The music tech industry has experienced significant growth, driven by advancements in digital technology and changing consumer behaviours.
There are 80k Record Labels, plus PR Labels and other music businesses in EDM alone; and our initial focus will be on the EDM segment, which allows us to address parallel markets (House, Drum and Bass, etc) at a later stage, with natural progression.
The global market size for music tech tools and Music Production Software market size was valued at USD 447.62 million in 2022 and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 8.36% during the forecast period, reaching USD 724.79 million by 2028.
Our Initial Vertical - Electronic Dance Music
(Market Information from MIDiA 2023)
With more creators than ever, music software, skills and hardware are becoming a crucial part of the industry.
Music production boomed during the pandemic; though growth slowed in 2022, revenues hit $6.6 billion, of which $2.8 billion was dance music producers and DJs.
Skills sharing and learning grew fastest, and it was worth $108 million in 2022. Plus, demand will increase still, due to fast evolving production techniques and new software.
The global dance music industry grew by 34% in 2022 to reach $10.2 billion, 16% higher than pre-pandemic.
The future is bright, with the rise of creator culture, bringing ever more people into dance music, both as fans and creators, with the creator-fan set to be at the centre of tomorrow’s dance music world.
KIFFIX will focus initial marketing and sales capability to this key, under-served, market.
Our Revenues
Our revenues are based on a Subscription Model standard SaaS and we expect to blend our revenues between B2C and B2B customers.
We envisage revenue to be 80% generated from in the UK and EU in year 1.
Our Strategic GtM Initiatives
Strategic initiatives include leveraging the Founder’s previous business network (record labels and EDM network of music professionals) as an initial go-to-market approach, comprising of:
16k Artists
100 PR Companies
300 Record Labels
20 Distributors
We will leverage our relationship with The University of Surrey's MSc Digital Marketing Programme to support our early digital marketing activity. The MSc Programme has designed an MSc Corporate Challenge where local businesses can leverage the skills and expertise of the MSc students to support our digital marketing activity; and in turn place graduating master’s students into these businesses.
Overview of the management team
Ben Rafferty (CEO) brings to KIFFIX 20 years’ experience with technology start and scale ups, with a combined focus of Fundraising, Growth, Product Innovation, and Operational Excellence. Ben holds an MBA (Distinction), is named on multiple patents, and was previously CTO for Kashet Bank, and Chief Innovation Officer at Semafone (now Sycurio).
Chris Jones (Chairman) brings a wealth of experience to his role as Chairman, having served in senior and executive positions at prominent companies like BT, Capgemini, and Kashet. One of Chris’s standout strengths is his extensive network of contacts, cultivated over many years; this network empowers KIFFIX to navigate fundraising rounds swiftly and with minimal friction.
Darren Bezuidenhout (CMO), leading Sales and Marketing, and the relationships has built over his career as an artist (excelling as a DJ and producer) positions him to hear the voice of the music professionals across the industry. Darren is one half Striptek, whom have achieved international chart-topping success. Darren’s contributions extend to the broader electronic music community through UFO Network, a multifaceted media and blog platform.
Transaction Description
We are seeking £350k GBP and are S/EIS Compliant for UK Taxpayers.
We are currently 100% owned by founding shareholders, and our Chairman and CEO have advanced loans of totalling £15000 to launch and operate the MVP. The founding team have been working for a year on the product MVP, prior to forming the company.
We believe our solution will attract big tech companies looking to enter (or protect their position) in the MusicTech space; as such we feel that this will provide a natural path to a trade sale exit.
Breakdown of spend from capital raised
The funds raised allows the KIFFIX team to grow the business in several directions; we have broken down how the money will be spent:
Development 62% : £215k
Existing Product - Stabilization and Industrialisation of our MVP (Approximately £65k)
New Product Development - Begin development of Horizon 1 (details upon request), and grow our in-house development team (Approximately £150k)
Operations 24% : £85k
Retain existing team & hire technologist(s)
Sales & Marketing 10% : £35 k
Grow the B2C Customer Base
Begin the B2B engagement
Focus plan around Digital GtM
Attend 2 conferences as opportunities to promote KIFFIX brand awareness and network with the B2B/C audience:
IMS (International Music Summit) in April 2024
ADE (Amsterdam Dance Event) in Oct 2024
Legal and Accounting Expenses 4% : £15k
3rd Party Accountants and Lawyers
Initiate VCT/Crowd-Funding to land at the end of Yr1
Financials
The simplistic overview of our three-year plan is:
Year 1 – Product Market Fit
Year 2 – Market Adoption
Year 3 – Customer Growth
...whilst continually developing new product capabilities and innovating in this space.
Below is our optimistic sales forecast, achieving:
2.5k customers at the end of Year 1, and
10k customers at the close of Year 2
Additional Information
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