New York (PRWEB) July 31, 2012
Tonara, creator of the first interactive sheet music app that listens to you, today announced $ 4 Million in Series A funding led by Carmel Ventures, with follow-on investment from existing seed investors including Index Ventures, Lool Ventures, Eilon Tirosh, Rami Lipman and other prominent angel participants. The funding will enable Tonara to invest in ongoing technology innovation, secure additional partnerships with sheet music publishers, and pursue strategic marketing initiatives.
The Tonara app enriches the music practicing experience by understanding the music being played and correlating it interactively with scores. Musicians can view their exact position in a score, focus on playing without the distraction of turning pages and receive real-time tempo feedback on their performance. Beginners and professionals alike enjoy the app, as it follows a musicians position in the score, even if the user changes tempo, goes out of key or makes a mistake.
Each week, Tonara will introduce a new selection of songs from Hal Leonards vast score collection, which features music from todays most popular artists under the Universal, Sony and EMI labels. During this rollout, users will gain access to hit songs of all genres and performance levels by artists such as Adele, Usher and the Beatles in full cooperation with Hal Leonards digital rights management system.
We started Tonara with the idea that the way people learn, practice and play music will change considerably with the rise of tablet technologies and new music distribution channels, said Yair Lavi, CEO and Founder of Tonara. This round of funding, along with the Hal Leonard partnership, supports our vision and firmly positions us as the leading provider of interactive digital sheet music. We enable musicians of all experience levels to have a fun and interactive experience while playing their favorite songs.
Added Lavi, Were thrilled to partner with Carmel Ventures as the lead investor in this funding round. Today, we took another strong step forward on our mission to transform the entire music-playing experience. Strengthened by our new and existing investors and partners were ready to scale our offering worldwide.
Rina Shainski, General Partner of Carmel Ventures and recent edition to Tonaras board added, Tonaras disruptive technology was designed to transform the music-learning and practicing experience for amateur and professional musicians while bringing intelligent interactivity and social sharing to the music-playing community. Tonara is generating excitement in the broad music ecosystem and were delighted to support the company in fulfilling its vision.
Tonaras music store currently features a wide selection of music and includes pieces for piano, violin, cello, flute and voice, with plans to support additional instruments as its user base grows. Tonara is currently available as an iPad App on Apples AppStore. Users can access a selection of music scores free of charge, and purchase additional scores for $ 0.99 to $ 2.99 directly within the app.
About Tonara
Launched in 2011, Tonara is the worlds first interactive sheet music application that listens to musicians and helps them learn, rehearse, and perform. The companys vision is to turn music playing into a fun and interactive experience. Using exclusive patent-pending polyphonic score-following technology, the Tonara app shows musicians their position on the score, automatically turns the pages at exactly the right moment, and provides real-time feedback on their performance. For more information, please visit http://www.tonara.com and follow us @tonara_app.
About Hal Leonard Corporation
Founded in 1947, Hal Leonard Corporation http://www.halleonard.com is the worlds largest music print publisher and digital content provider, producing songbooks, sheet music, educational publications, reference books, DVDs, tech products, magazines, eBooks, digital sheet music, apps and more. In its more than 200,000 available publications and products, the company represents many of the worlds best known and most respected publishers, artists, songwriters and arrangers. Hal Leonard is headquartered in Milwaukee, WI and also has domestic offices in Winona, MN; New York; and Nashville; and offices abroad in Australia, Belgium, China, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
About Carmel Ventures
With over $ 600 million currently under management, several successful exits, and a growing portfolio of promising start-ups, Carmel is among Israels top-tier venture capital funds. Carmels investments are focused primarily on early stage companies in the fields of Software, Internet, Digital Media, Communications, Semiconductors, and Consumer Electronics. Founded in 2000 by pioneers and leaders of the Israeli high tech industry, Carmel provides significant capital and active, hands-on support through the growth cycle of its portfolio companies and is recognized as a true company-building fund in Israel. Carmel, headquartered in Herzliya, Israel enjoys a worldwide network of industry, strategic and investment resources. Carmel is an affiliate of the Viola Group, the largest technology focused Private Equity group in Israel with $ 2B under management. For more information, please visit http://www.carmelventures.com.