{"id":219363,"date":"2024-12-17T13:03:24","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T13:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=219363"},"modified":"2024-12-17T13:06:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T13:06:00","slug":"osn-group-invests-55m-into-anghami-following-companies-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/osn-group-invests-55m-into-anghami-following-companies-merger\/","title":{"rendered":"Anghami secures $55m investment from OSN Group following companies’ merger"},"content":{"rendered":"

OSN Group, owner of MENA-focused Netflix rival OSN+, has announced a new $55 million investment into Anghami, the MENA-focused Spotify rival.<\/p>\n

The two merged operations earlier this year, creating what they called a regional \u201centertainment powerhouse.\u201d The combined platforms boast 18,000<\/strong> hours of premium video content, including HBO content, and over 100 million<\/strong> Arabic and international songs and podcasts. It came with a commitment from OSN to \u201cinject up to USD $50 million<\/a>\u201d in Anghami for a majority stake.<\/p>\n

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The new investment will enable the platforms to expand their content library, \u201cenhance user experience through cutting-edge technologies, and strengthen their presence across the MENA region,\u201d Anghami said in a statement on Monday (December 16).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is also aimed to drive innovations such as AI-driven personalization and next-generation streaming technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n

“This new round of funding reflects our unwavering belief in Anghami’s potential to lead the MENA region in digital entertainment,\u201d OSN Group CEO Joe Kawkabani<\/strong> said. \u201cTogether, we will continue redefining how audiences experience premium content, ensuring our platform remains a pioneer in the industry.”<\/p>\n

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Anghami has reported strong streaming video user base growth since the merger, up 41%<\/strong><\/span> between April and October 2024. Average revenue per user (ARPU) jumped 18%<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0in Q3 2024.<\/p>\n

The company has also relaunched the OSN+ platform, which it says has resulted in higher engagement, and launched a new 4K Premium Plan with Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. It also improved an AI recommendation engine, which Anghami says \u201cresult[ed] in enhanced content discoverability.\u201d<\/p>\n

“This new round of funding reflects our unwavering belief in Anghami’s potential to lead the MENA region in digital entertainment.”<\/p>\n

Joe Kawkabani, OSN Group<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“The success of this partnership is a testament to the power of collaboration and innovation,\u201d said Elie Habib<\/strong>, CEO of Anghami and OSN+.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this new investment from OSN Group, we are poised to elevate the digital entertainment experience for MENA audiences even further and expand our reach.”<\/p>\n

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The new investment round comes a few months after Anghami settled a legal dispute and struck a licensing agreement<\/a> with ESMAA<\/strong>, reputed to be the first rights management agency operating in the Gulf states. It was launched by MENA-based music publisher PopArabia<\/strong> in 2020, the same year PopArabia formed a JV with Reservoir<\/strong> and assumed the role of sub-publisher for all of Reservoir\u2019s copyrights in the region.<\/p>\n

Speaking with MBW<\/em>, PopArabia Founder and CEO Spek<\/strong> (Hussain Yoosuf<\/strong>) explained that the Anghami agreement was \u201ca big deal\u201d for ESMAA and for the Gulf.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been able to put this deal together on behalf of not just PopArabia and Reservoir repertoire, but to include essentially all of the PopArabia sub-published repertoire, and the ESMAA represented rights group, which includes IMPEL<\/strong>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEffectively, the vast majority of the independent music [publishing] community, we expect to go through this deal. It\u2019s the first time that an entity in the Gulf has been able to administer a deal of this kind, with the magnitude of the global industry flowing through a local entity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new investment is aimed at expanding Anghami’s content library and ‘enhancing the user experience through cutting-edge technologies’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":219423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[5409,5666,133394,133393],"class_list":["post-219363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-anghami","tag-elie-habib","tag-joe-kawkabani","tag-osn-group"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}