Prince Alwaleed invests in music start-up

06 August 2018
Prince Alwaleed's Kingdom Holding owns shares in Twitter, Lyft, Careem and JD.com

Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has made a SR1bn ($267m) investment in French streaming music service Deezer, which competes with Spotify and Apple Music.

The investment was made through Prince Alwaleed’s Kingdom Holding Company and Rotana, the Saudi billionaire’s entertainment business that is partly owned by US-based 21st Century Fox.

It is Prince Alwaleed’s first major deal since he was released from detention in line with Saudi Arabia’s anti-corruption drive.

He said in a statement that the deal "represents one of the many premium investments that we have always sought for our shareholders".

The transaction is not the first for Prince Alwaleed’s businesses to invest in technology-driven companies. Kingdom Holding owns shares in Twitter, ride-sharing firms Lyft and Careem, and Chinese online retailer JD.com.

The investment in Deezer is part of the French music streaming start-up’s $1.2bn round of funding.

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