Australian streaming service Guvera at death’s door as co-founder leaves

Music streaming startup Guvera is in bad shape after investors were told that a co-founder and primary investor have walked away from the project, and that the business has shut down all operations.

Guvera was founded in 2008 and had the intention of providing free and legal music to its users via desktop browsers and apps. Since then it has experienced various transformations and turmoil, even briefly shutting down its Australian operation and running as an advertising tracking tool for the Indian and Indonesian markets in 2016.

Around 3,000 private investors have so far assisted in the raising of $185 million for the company in the last nine years, but they were told in a meeting on Friday that co-founder Claes Loberg and major investor Steve Porch have walked away from the business.

The Future

The remaining director, Darren Herft, addressed the meeting and asked for any volunteers in replacing the departing members, hoping to rebuild the company. This seems unlikely, however, given the business narrowly escaped insolvency after losing $81 million in the last financial year (leading to the aforementioned tracking tool revenue raiser) and also had a $100 million IPO turned down by the ASX.

Herft is optimistic for his shareholders at least, claiming the company still holds valuable intellectual property that can be sold off, and is also owed $6 million in tax. As for the service itself, the future looks bleak.