Billionaire Slim Puts $40 Million Into Shazam

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim (Image credit: AFP/Getty Images via @daylife)

The world's richest man is putting his money where your smartphone's mic is, with a $40 million investment in music-recognition app Shazam. The small British company with big ambitions has inked a partnership with Carlos Slim Helu and his company America Movil, ahead of its own IPO. As well as buying a stake, America Movil ahs formed a strategic partnership that will it pre-install the service on smartphones it sells across Latin America.

Shazam, which claims 70 million monthly active users, said in a press-release that the move would help it expand further into television, and 'an entirely new phase of growth,' according to CEO Rich Riley. Shazam investor Kleiner Perkins referred America Movil to Shazam, according to Reuters.

The app uses a smartphone's microphone to listen to a song and helps a user identify it by checking its database of more than 27 million tracks. Shazam then makes money by referring users to iTunes where they can buy songs, or Spotify where they can buy a subscription. It is however, increasingly deriving money from TV advertisers.

Viewers with the app can use it to recognize brand names being touted on TV, to unlock special offers or buy products. U.S. viewers can also use it to get further information about shows on 160 television channels, such as cast details or programming schedules.

Riley said the partnerships with broadcasters would encourage a broader group of people to use Shazam more frequently. 'We look forward to working with America Movil to launch these services in the region as we seek to increase our ubiquity throughout the world.'

In July Shazam released new app for the iPad with an auto-tagging feature that would let people automatically recognize media playing around them.