Musopia develops music e-learning apps with a purpose — OP’s risk-sharing loans as a part of their diversified funding strategy
June 17, 2021
Finland is known for its edtech, games and music. But what comes out when you combine all the three? Founder and CEO of Musopia Ltd, Topi Lopponen has grown a successful e-learning business based on these strengths. With its rapid growth on the global markets, enabled by a diversified set of funding, the team Musopia is ready to take its share of the digitalization of music education.
10 years on the global markets, 5 million downloads, 150% growth last year. These are just a few digits to showcase the success of Musopia. With its subscription-based gamified product lowering the threshold to learning musical intstruments, the company has gained a settled user base all over the world and partnerships with the leading instrument manufacturers.
Musopia is driven by a mission to make the world better by helping aspiring musicians find the joy of music: “As many as 75% of people would like to play a musical instrument. However, a majority quit from the beginning; in fact, of those buying their first guitar, 90% quit the hobby before learning to play it”, says Topi Lopponen, CEO and founder of Musopia.
Growth through a variety of financing instruments
To boost their growth, Musopia has leaned into a variety of financial instruments. Angel investors – such as FiBAN investor Pontus Stråhlman – have been a crucial source of “smart money”, providing funding, know-how, and experience in the company. Just recently the board of Musopia got reinforcement from names such as Mika Ihamuotila and Peter Vesterbacka.
In addition to private equity, OP’s EIF-granted bank loans have been a convenient and less work-intensive way to get funding: “With OP’s risk-sharing bank loans we have been able to focus on the core – growing the business”, Lopponen says. “Our cooperation with OP has been extremely convenient.”
OP’s two risk-sharing guarantees, SME InnovFin and SME Initiative are aimed at small and medium-sized companies that are looking for high growth. “OP’s EIF-granted bank loans offer a 50% risk-sharing guarantee from the European Investment Fund (EIF) that helps to cut a company’s financing costs by reducing the needed collateral,” tells Pirjo Koponen, Executive Director at OP.
“Musopia is a great example of a fast-growing startup that benefits from having all the banking and insurance services compressed in one service”, adds Koponen.
Does the SME InnovFin or SME Initiative risk-sharing guarantee suit your company?
EIF financing is targeted at unlisted SMEs in need of financing for profitable investments and working capital.
SME InnovFin is a good financing solution, especially when your company is growing fast or is innovative and invests significantly in product, service, and process development. The risk-sharing guarantee facility suits SMEs with a staff of less than 500.
SME Initiative is suitable for SMEs to finance investments on a more extensive basis employing less than 250 people. The risk-sharing guarantee facility is restricted by government aid granted within three financial years through De minimis regulation. The risk-sharing guarantee is fully exploited.
Take a closer look at risk-sharing guarantee facilities:
- InnovFin risk-sharing guarantee for innovative SMEs (InnovFin-riskinjakotakaus innovatiivisille ja digitalisointiin investoiville yrityksille)
- Initiative risk-sharing guarantee for SMEs (Initiative-riskinjakotakaus pk-yrityksille)
More information about the SME risk-sharing guaranteed loans
Risk-sharing guarantee
More information:
Pirjo Koponen
Executive Director, OP
pirjo.koponen@op.fi
