Alexi Cory-Smith, who exited BMG UK in December 2017, has launched what she describes as “a music firm for the digital age,” Bella Figura Music.

Cory-Smith will lead the corporate as its CEO, alongside co-founder and Head of Investments, Neelesh Prabhu, who beforehand led the worldwide investments division of BMG.

“I’ve all the time needed to have my very own music firm and after years in corporates the timing to take an entrepreneurial path felt proper,” Cory-Smith mentioned in a press launch on Tuesday (February 14).

In accordance with a profile in The Instances, Cory-Smith and Prabhu launch their firm with upwards of EUR €30 million in backing from Freshstream, a London-based personal fairness agency.

With backing from Freshstream, Bella Figura has been capable of purchase Man Chambers’ publishing catalog, together with Robbie Williams hits similar to ‘Angels’, ‘Really feel’ and ‘Let Me Entertain You,’  along with David Grey’s report label IHT, which controls all of his albums from the breakthrough 1998 ‘White Ladder’ to the 2019 hit ‘Gold In A Brass Age.’

Grey, a British singer-songwriter, is carefully concerned with Bella Figura Music, the brand new firm mentioned.

“I view David Grey and Man Chambers because the founding blocks on which we construct the enterprise. One is data, the opposite is publishing – each fine quality catalogues,” mentioned Cory-Smith.

David Grey commented on his cope with Bella Figura, saying: “I’ve been on the lookout for a brand new companion for my music for fairly a while, so after I heard about Alexi and Bella Figura I believed it had the potential to be a very good match.

“They struck me as an organization with critical ambitions, an eye fixed for element and some extent to show, and the truth that I had a very good relationship with Alexi from her time at Chrysalis/BMG was undoubtedly a significant optimistic too. The world of music and know-how is in a state of fixed flux and it’s very important to work with people who find themselves not solely attentive to its challenges, but in addition alert to its alternatives. I really feel very optimistic that with Bella Figura I’ve discovered simply that.”

Chambers, greatest identified for his work with Robbie Williams, mentioned: “I’m so happy to be working with Bella Figura. I feel Alexi is without doubt one of the most dynamic executives working within the music trade. Having Alexi on the helm of Bella Figura is an thrilling prospect for what’s a brand new and very important space for songwriters within the trade in the present day.”

As well as, Bella Figura says it has acquired a portfolio of rights from AWAL – the recorded music companies firm that was offered to Sony Music by Kobalt in a $430 million deal final yr.

This AWAL-divested portfolio of rights, says Bella Figura, contains shares in recordings by Placebo, David Grey, Wombats, Dashboard Confessional and extra; and US songwriter/producer Darrell Brown’s publishing shares in 25 songs together with hits for LeAnn Rimes and Keith City.

Freshstream, based on its web site, invests in rising companies based mostly in Western Europe, significantly within the UK and Benelux markets. The corporate says it has €30 million to €100 million in fairness funding and usually buys majority stakes, “however with flexibility to take minority positions and make investments throughout the capital construction.”

Final yr, Freshstream invested in Nafinco, a Dutch full-service companion for impartial pharmacies and UK-based omni-channel for secondhand vehicles, Large Motoring World. 

Cory-Smith is a distinguished determine within the UK music trade. She joined BMG UK in January 2011, turning into SVP of BMG UK earlier than transitioning to EVP of the mixed BMG Chrysalis UK in 2013. She was later promoted to President, Repertoire and Advertising of BMG UK, in 2016, main the label’s Repertoire enterprise throughout each publishing and data.

At BMG, she helped handle a few of the group’s key mergers and acquisitions together with Chrysalis (publishing), Union Sq. (grasp catalogue advertising and licensing), ‘Rosetta’ (the Virgin/ Well-known Music publishing catalogue divestment by EMI) Mute and Sanctuary (Grasp Catalogue divestments by UMG), Infectious (frontline Report Label) and manufacturing firms Altitude Music and Beds & Beats. She additionally supported the mixing of Bug (Publishing) and the acquisition of UK writer Minder Music.

Cory-Smith additionally helped signal The Rolling Stones and Roger Waters, two of the best incomes worldwide acts within the BMG roster.

In the meantime, Prabhu additionally served a seven-year stint at BMG from 2011, working alongside Cory-Smith in BMG’s world investments / M&A division and taking care of groups in Berlin, LA, NYC, and London. Prabhu not too long ago co-founded Singapore-based startup Insurtech.

Most not too long ago, the duo launched Bella Figura Music, which goals to be a “purpose-built, artist-centric music firm,” that brings collectively main know-how and a relentless deal with inventive excellence.

“I’m very happy with what we’ve got achieved in Bella Figura Music’s first yr of enterprise,” Cory-Smith added.

The manager mentioned the thought for Bella Figura Music’s title got here to her at an Italian deli when the waiter identified it will not be good for the ‘Bella Figura’ if she had ordered some cake.

“At that actual second, one among our advisors known as asking for the corporate title. And Bella Figura simply caught. It makes much more sense now when you think about that our firm is concentrated on delivering stunning numbers and figures!

“I suppose I might have known as it Lemon Ricotta Cake. Or not. As a result of because it turned out, I left the deli with only a black espresso.”

Music Enterprise Worldwide