Payment platform Mozaic, which is based in Nashville and Chicago, says it has received investments from several music industry professionals and creative moguls in the local area.
Mozaic, which evolved from its previous iteration, Jammber, handles payments that rely on "smart" contracts to automate how to divide income among creative teams. The company hopes to become the top pay platform for the global co-creation economy.
Co-founders Marcus Cobb and Rachel Knepp will join Google’s 2022 cohort for its competitive Startups Accelerator: Black Founders program. Additionally, they plan to build a virtual back office for all creators in every stage of their careers that will emphasize automatic payments, smart contracts and splits.
Cobb says Nashville is the perfect market for Mozaic to expand in. Some prominent producers, such as Drumma Boy, have already signed on. Visa and other financial service companies have become partners with Mozaic.
"We're really hoping by standing on the shoulders of giants like Visa, PayPal and Stripe we can be the next wave of payments by streamlining the money people earn together," Cobb stated. "We believe it's a massive, and potentially, billion-dollar opportunity."
Most people are used to getting paid automatically for their work, Cobb said.
"Creatives don't really have that luxury because there's no company to take revenue and turn it into paychecks with taxes and compliance all taken care of," he said. "Mozaic is important because it gives creatives that power."
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The latest round of investment Mozaic is raising is projected to reach $5.5 million.
Local investors include Joe Galante, former chairman and CEO of Sony Music Nashville who is is also a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Previously, Galante’s Project Music incubator program invested in Mozaic when it was still Jammber.
According to Cobb, Nashville's music scene is more approachable than any other music market.
"Music pioneers a lot of these ideas on how to collaborate and so when those ideas spread across the entire creator economy, it gave us a huge lift," he said.
Other investors include music manager Chris Parr, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund and Nashville angel investors InCrowd Capital. Various talent management agencies and Vector Management Nashville are involved, too.