Create Music Group Scores $450 Million Raise at $2.2 Billion Valuation

(l to r) Create Music Group co-founders Alexandre Williams (COO), Jonathan Strauss (CEO), and Wayne Hampton (CBO). Photo Credit: Rich Polk

Three months after launching a half-billion-dollar fund, Create Music Group has officially wrapped a $450 million raise secured at a $2.2 billion valuation.

11-year-old Create formally disclosed that funding blast this morning, 21 months removed from a $165 million strategic round. More recently, besides the mentioned catalog fund, Create earlier in February powered a $300 million Nettwerk Music management buyout.

In other words, it’s been an active – and capital-heavy – couple years for the Broke Records, CR2, and !K7 Music owner. As for today’s $450 million tranche, Create pointed to a mixture of debt and equity – while emphasizing management’s continued possession of a majority interest.

Aboard as minority stakeholders are Ares Management, Flexpoint Ford (which put up a substantial chunk of the $165 million round), and “highly selective, concentrated investment partnership” 2 Mile Capital.

(Create chief financial and commercial officer William Smith co-founded and is a partner at 2 Mile, which is said to have about $125 million in assets under management.)

In a statement, Create co-founder and head Jonathan Strauss, whose company’s also been scooping up song rights and more, underscored plans for a roadmap acceleration.

“At a time when the future of media, technology, and creative ownership is being rewritten, we’ve become the definitive platform for the music and media industries’ most visionary entrepreneurs,” communicated Strauss.

“This capital will not only accelerate our roadmap, expanding our footprint in media, IP and technology, but also empower our partners to build generational businesses that redefine culture and value creation across the global entertainment ecosystem,” the exec concluded.

As for how the raise fits into the bigger funding picture, indie-side capital in particular is continuing to pour in.

Across recent months alone, this refers (but certainly isn’t limited) to raises of $200 million for Pipeline, $43 million for Xposure Music, $150 million for Rostrum Pacific, $80 million for Connect Music, $200 million for Duetti, and – well, you get the idea.

(We don’t know the precise size of the investment GoldState Music scored from Bridgepoint to close out February, but the involved parties described it as “significant.” Separately, GoldState founder Charles Goldstuck is a Create stakeholder as well, and former Bridgepoint exec Andrew Sweet co-founded the aforesaid 2 Mile.)

And as all these players are zeroing in on acquisitions – across song rights, core industry companies, and even the wider entertainment space – it seems safe to predict that the rest of 2026 will deliver a steady stream of purchases.

Furthermore, even if the highlighted businesses’ investments take a while to materialize – in general, multimillion-dollar buyouts don’t close overnight – 2025’s huge pile of earmarked M&A capital will presumably fuel dealmaking in any event.