Shazam App Receives $40 Million Funding From Mexican Billionaire Carlos Slim, App Now Pre-Installed On Smartphones Sold By America Movil In Latin America Expansion

Smartphone app developer Shazam received funding from Carlos Slim, one of the world's richest men. Slim's company America Movil will fuel a Latin American expansion of the Shazam app with a $40 million investment in the app.

The Shazam app identify songs for users by allowing the app to listen to a few moments of the music. 73-year-old Slim, from Mexico, ranked the world's top billionaire by Forbes magazine, according to Reuters. He has a net worth of of $73 billion, and was brought in to the deal by one of Shazam's venture capital owners, Silicon Valley fund Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Reuters reports that Shazam, which is based in London, will use the investment to push for an expansion in Latin America and into television.

"We currently have 350 million users," Shazam Executive Chairman Andrew Fisher said. "Our next milestone is 500 million, but we have our hearts set on one billion people using our service."

Fisher said the deal with América Móvil will mean the app is pre-installed on smartphones the company sells in Latin America, The Wall Street Journal reports.

"Shazam is defining a new category of media engagement that combines the power of mobile with traditional broadcast media and advertising," Slim said in a statement.

América Móvil, with 263 million Latin American mobile subscribers, is the world's fifth largest network operator by subscribers.

Shazam is available to users in more than 200 countries and is available in 33 languages, The Los Angeles Times reports.

"We are thoroughly global," Shazam Chief Executive Rich Riley said.

Reuters reports that Shazam hopes to move forward into television, where its recognition software can identify songs from an advertisement on TV or a soundtrack from a television show, and then link viewers directly to the brand's website or the song.

"Within 18 months we expect TV will significantly outperform the music side (of the business) and that's part of this investment," Andrew Fisher, executive chairman of Shazam, said in an interview.

Shazam is a non-profit company, but has generated $300 million of revenue in the past 12 months from song purchases.