Piano Media, online subscription-based media content payment system, announced last week that it has received €300,000 in Series-A funding from Jan Jenča and Ivan Štefunko at MONOGRAM Ventures, bringing Piano’s total market valuation of the company to nearly 1 million Euros. This investment round will be used primarily to expand into new European markets and solidify Piano’s Slovak market share.
Piano’s initial project is in Slovakia where nine publishers have agreed to put their online content behind its pay-wall. “Piano has proven remarkably successful for participating publishers. We have increased their online subscription revenue while having only a small impact on readership ” said Tomas Bella, co-founder and Chief Executive of Piano. “This first round of funding enables us to examine market possibilities and expand beyond Slovakia’s borders while we strengthen our position on the Slovak market.”
Piano netted over €40,000 in its first month of operations in Slovakia and has experienced steady active subscriber growth since it launched in May, 2011. Nine major Slovak publishers participate in Piano’s common payment system offering more than 44 different sites and services.
Here is an older article by WSJ Emerging Europe on Piano Media plans earlier this year.
