Create Music Group Completes $450M Fundraise at $2.2B Valuation

LOS ANGELES, March 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Create Music Group today announced the successful completion of its latest funding round, valuing the company at $2.2 billion and securing over $450 million of new equity and debt capital to support its continued expansion. The company remains majority-owned by its founders, with institutional investors Ares Management, 2 Mile, and Flexpoint Ford each holding minority stakes. The financing round also included expanded bank group support, with Truist Securities and Banc of California serving as Joint Lead Arrangers.

This milestone comes on the heels of Create's strategic investment in Nettwerk Music Group, a transaction totaling more than $300 million that strengthens the company's portfolio with one of the world's most respected independent recording and publishing companies. The agreement enables Nettwerk's leadership to increase ownership while preserving the label's identity and creative autonomy – aligning with Create's partnership-first approach. The partnership with Nettwerk, home to iconic artists like Vacations, Sarah McLachlan, SYML, Paris Paloma, Passenger and Old Crow Medicine Show, exemplifies Create's strategy: backing culturally defining labels and entrepreneurs and helping them build even more substantial businesses on top of the Create platform.

"At a time when the future of media, technology, and creative ownership is being rewritten, we've become the definitive platform for the music and media industries' most visionary entrepreneurs," said Jonathan Strauss, co-founder and CEO, Create Music Group. "This capital will not only accelerate our roadmap, expanding our footprint in media, IP and technology, but also empower our partners to build generational businesses that redefine culture and value creation across the global entertainment ecosystem."

Will Smith, Chief Financial Officer at Create Music Group, also commented: "The music industry is as dynamic as it has ever been, with rapid growth in new consumption channels and means of creation, which is creating vast opportunities for agile, digital-first companies to reshape the status quo. In that context, this fundraise is an exciting milestone for Create and the product of a lot of hard work from our entire team over many years. The newly raised capital will support continued acquisitions, strategic investments, technology development and global expansion – reinforcing Create's long-term commitment to building the industry-defining platform for the world's leading music businesses and entrepreneurs."

Founded in 2015, Create is a digitally native music, media and technology platform that has evolved into one of the industry's most active owner-operators of culturally influential labels, catalogs and creative businesses. By combining proprietary technology, data analytics, digital marketing expertise and strategic capital deployment, Create has become the strategic partner of choice for leading music labels, artists and catalog owners.

Over the past 12 months alone, the company has invested more than $500 million across acquisitions, advances and other growth initiatives, positioning Create as a scaled co-owner and operator of enduring music businesses with global reach.

Create's growing portfolio reflects this model in action. The company has assembled a collection of independent labels and catalog businesses that maintain operational autonomy while leveraging the scale, reach, and strategic capabilities of the Create platform. These include broke., the marketing-driven record label that has rapidly rewritten the playbook on artist discovery, building global chart dominance across multiple major genres; Monstercat, one of the most influential independent electronic music labels with 1000's of releases and a global fan base; !K7 Music, a Berlin-based label group with deep cultural heritage; Cr2 Records, a UK dance music platform encompassing label, publishing and creative tools businesses; and Mau5trap the iconic label founded by Deadmau5 and many more.

Together, these companies demonstrate Create's ability to partner with founders at every stage while preserving creative identity and accelerating long-term growth.

About Create Music Group
Create is a platform for some of the world's most influential independent record labels and creative entrepreneurs. We operate a portfolio of specialist, market-leading label brands and catalog assets, centralized onto a unified platform comprising technology, data, marketing, and capital. Our mission is to help independent labels grow and thrive in the digital era. To learn more about Create Music Group, please visit www.createmusicgroup.com.

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SOURCE Create Music Group