As it continues to battle Apple’s rapidly rising rival music streaming service, Spotify is looking to add fresh funds to its coffers.
The Swedish company has scheduled meetings with investors to raise about $500 million in convertible bonds, according to reports from Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet and the Wall Street Journal. Spotify is looking to beef up its reserves in the case of consolidation opportunities in its industry, but it’s not a sign of an imminent IPO, according one of the Journal‘s sources.
Last summer, Spotify raised a massive $526 million at a $8.5 billion valuation and has maintained that it’s under no pressure to go public. However, this new fundraise is in the form of convertible bonds, a somewhat unusual move for a company like Spotify. Though no information about the company’s resulting valuation has been disclosed, this could be a signal that it would otherwise face a “down round,” or when a company raises new funding at a lower valuation than its previous one (see case of Foursquare), which wouldn’t be surprising in the current climate. Competing service Deezer recently opted to raise about $109 million (€100 million) after putting its IPO plans on ice, citing unfavorable market conditions.
Reached via email, a Spotify spokesman declined to comment.
While Spotify has been viewed as the market leader for several years, Apple’s (AAPL) rival service has been rapidly growing since its launch last summer. Apple Music reached 10 million paying subscribers within six months of its debut, something it took Spotify years to achieve. Currently, the Swedish service claims 75 million users, including 20 million paying customers.