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:

More information:

Pirjo Koponen
Executive Director, OP
pirjo.koponen@op.fi