Triller is an AI-powered viral music video app.
Based in Los Angeles, Triller was launched in 2015 and is led by Chief Executive Officer Mike Lu.
Triller has agreed licensing partnerships with Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Universal Music Group.
Funding and investors
In October 2019, Triller raised an eight-figure funding round led by Proxima Media.
The funding round was worth $28 million in total, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, with the Series B raise potentially valuing Triller at $130 million.
As a result of renewed licensing agreements with Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group, all three companies, say sources, own a minority piece of Triller.
In December 2019 Triller announced the addition of a heavyweight roster of investors and strategic partners, including Snoop Dogg, The Weeknd, Marshmello, Lil Wayne, YoungThug, Kendrick Lamar, Baron Davis, Tyga, TI, Jake Paul and Troy Cartner; mega-music managers Gee Roberson (Co-CEO of The Blueprint Group), Moe Shalizi (founder of The Shalizi Group), Wassim Sal Slaiby (CEO of XO Records), Amir Cash Esmailian of XO, and Ash Pournouri (former manager for Avicii);.
Also joining as investors and strategic partners at the time were Shawn Gee (President of Live Nation Urban), Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith (Chief Executive Officer of TDE), James Prince (Chief Executive Officer of Rap-a-Lot Records), and Believe Digital, among others.
The new addition of these backers is understood to have raised a further $10m-plus for Triller.
In July 2020, the company was reported to be raising between $200m and $300m to fuel its expansion.
Other milestones
In July 2020, Triller was ranked as the No.1 photo & video app on the App Store store in India, a feat the company’s CEO Mike Lu claimed to have achieved “without spending a dime on marketing”.
In August 2020 Triller issued a press release citing data from analytics firm Sensor Tower, to announce that its app had hit No.1 in all categories on the App store in 50 countries, including the United States, UK, Brazil, Germany, France and Australia.
Triller also revealed in that same press release that it its number of user downloads increased by over 20 times in the prior week, reaching over 250 million downloads worldwide.
In October 2020, Triller was reportedly in the middle of negotiations with what were described as “blank-check acquisition companies” about a possible merger in order to go public in the United States.
Litigation
In July 2020, the video sharing app sued Chinese-owned rival TikTok for patent infringement.
In October, TikTok filed a countersuit in San Francisco federal court in response to Triller’s patent infringement lawsuit filed in a Texas court in July.
Deals
In August 2020 Triller and India-born music streaming service JioSaavn entered into a long-term exclusive partnership, which a press release stated will drive “growth and subscribers for both services”.
Also in August 2020, Triller inked a deal with UK-based B2B digital music company 7digital Group in an agreement that would see the latter company provide Triller with access to its global catalog of more than 80 million tracks by licensing its API for music sampling and full-length audio streaming.
In October 2020, Pan-European licensing hub ICE and Triller agreed a multi-territory licensing deal for the musical works represented by the ICE Core.Music Business Worldwide