
Ahdritz Capital
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New York, NY 10020

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Investing and advising where culture meets technology.

Ahdritz Capital Partners invests in the infrastructure and services layer that empowers independent creators and enterprises.

Making a difference takes time, so a long-term partnership is often required.  Every entrepreneur and their company has their own key issues and decisions to grapple with when formulating a lasting strategy that works for all stakeholders.

As a founder-turned-investor with a track record of building highly successful global companies, Willard looks for opportunities where his hard-won experience and insights can be leveraged for genuine impact.  Each company is carefully selected on this basis, and each engagement comes with access to the advice, expertise, and network of Willard and his team.

If you would like to hear more about our work, please get in touch: 

Throughout his career as a founder and investor, Willard has been driven by the desire to use entrepreneurship and technology for positive impact. Having seen first-hand the unfairness of the music industry’s standard practices, he set out to put in place a fairer deal for creators. This same desire lies behind his investments today.

There now exists a significantly bigger challenge and opportunity to support companies that generate positive global impact as well as financial returns.

Norrsken is an impact ecosystem where entrepreneurs can find everything they need to make saving the world their business. Its work stems from a belief in entrepreneurship and new technology as forces that can positively impact the world. Norrsken is a non-profit, non-partisan and non-religious foundation. It was founded by Niklas Adalberth, co-founder of payment services unicorn Klarna.

Willard mentors companies on the roster of the Norrsken Foundation, a leading programme based in Stockholm for impact-focused startups, and is on the advisory board of Norrsken22, a growth fund backing tech startups in Africa. He has invested in several funds operated by Norrsken.

Norrsken investors are moved by the belief that time is running out to solve the biggest challenges facing humanity today, from the climate crisis to global economic inequality. As a result, their investments focus on sectors including decarbonization, electrification, clean energy, healthcare, sustainable food production, and education. Willard and his counterparts at Norrsken also endeavor to support entrepreneurs in emerging markets, where sustainable economic growth and job creation can be generated in areas where it is most needed.

Willard remains inspired by the positive difference that committed, ethically minded investing can make.

Impact

EVEN is a direct-to-fan platform with a pay-what-you-want model. It provides exclusive music, community chat, fan experiences, merch, and live events. It gives first access to new music videos, documentaries, and live performances. It eliminates intermediaries. Mag Rodriguez’s idea is to “sell music first, stream second.”  And artists retain full ownership.

EVEN

The music distribution platform that lets you do it all.

Founder & CEO Rohan Nesho Jain has created an end-to-end music distribution and artist growth platform, enabling independent creators and labels to release music globally on 150+ streaming platforms while keeping 100% of their rights and ownership.

Key services include global distribution, royalty management, promotion & marketing, publishing & licensing, and data analytics.

Madverse

Background music for business that wants it all.

Soundtrack Technologies is a global music streaming service that caters specifically to businesses. For years, the B2B market has lagged behind the consumer market in the streaming world, with established streaming services only licensed for personal, rather than commercial, use. Soundtrack’s all-in-one solution combines expert curation and world-class technology to offer a simple, powerful and legal way to stream music in commercial environments, while ensuring that artists receive the compensation they deserve for having their music played.

Using cutting-edge AI, their service enables business owners to select the perfect background music for their brand and drive better relationships with their customers. And, by using technology to better track where and when music is played, the company has opened up an untapped source of royalty payments for musicians. Closing the gap between the B2C and B2B music streaming markets, their mission is to kill bad background music and to soundtrack every brand in the world.

“Soundtrack was created with the ambition to move the antiquated background music market into the streaming era, bringing transparency, compliance, and fair compensation and correct flow of royalties to artists and composers when their music is played in a public or commercial environment. We are taking the music streaming revolution that happened in the consumer space to the B2B sector. We are upgrading a broken legacy model and combining streaming with enhanced proprietary technology, and in doing so, unlocking a multi-billion dollar market for the music industry. We want to increase royalties to artists and songwriters and ensure that they are paid when their music is played.” — Ola Sars, co-founder, CEO and Chairman, Soundtrack

Soundtrack

Investments made by Ahdritz Capital Partners and its entities.

The purpose of this website is limited to providing you with general information on Ahdritz Capital Partners’ services and philosophy. Ahdritz Capital Partners (ACP) does not render or offer to render investment advice through this website. Nothing on this website constitutes or forms a part of any offer for sale or subscription of, or any invitation to offer to buy or subscribe for, any securities, nor should it or any part of it form the basis of, or be relied upon in connection with, any contract or commitment whatsoever. ACP may only transact business or render investment advice in those jurisdictions where one or more of the ACP entities are registered and/or have made the appropriate notice filing with such jurisdiction’s regulatory authority, or where ACP is otherwise excluded or exempted from such jurisdiction’s registration and/or notice filing requirements. 

This website is a publication of ACP. Nothing herein is intended to constitute legal, accounting, tax, securities or investment advice, an opinion regarding the appropriateness of any investment, or an offer or a solicitation to buy or sell a security of any type or to engage in any other transaction. The contents of this website are intended for general information purposes only. ACP’s investment advisory services are provided only to a limited number of private investment vehicles; ACP does not make its services available to the public. The information on this website has been prepared without taking into account the investment objectives, financial situation or particular needs of any particular person. Nothing contained on this website should be relied on in making any investment or other decision. You should obtain relevant and specific professional advice before making any investment decision.

Certain information contained on this website constitutes forward-looking statements, which can be identified by the use of “may”, “will”, “should”, “expect”, “anticipate”, “project”, “intend”, “continue”, or “believe”, or the negatives thereof or other variations thereon or comparable terminology. Such forward-looking statements are based upon certain assumptions that may change and not all of which are described herein. No representation or warranty is made by ACP as to the reasonableness of such assumptions.

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A founder and investor with a history of industry disruption.

“It’s safe to say that the music industry as we know it today was uniquely shaped by the pioneering mind of Willard Ahdritz. His foresight regarding the coming changes in the marketplace combined with his ability to reimagine standard practices has been a dynamite recipe for commercial success. For these reasons and more, we’re honored to present Willard with Music Biz’s Innovator Award.”

— Portia Sabin, President, Music Business Association

 is the Managing Partner of Ahdritz Capital.

Willard started out as a musician and the founder of Telegram Records & Publishing, which put Stockholm on the international music map.  After completing his MBA, he spent seven years at L.E.K. Consulting in London, where formulating strategies and M&A execution gave him the tools for approaching problems with an analytical mindset.

Willard fundamentally transformed the music industry by founding Kobalt Music Group in 2000 and pioneering three interconnected innovations: real-time global technology infrastructure for royalty tracking and payment, a creator-first ownership model that allowed artists to retain 100% copyright ownership, and the establishment of music royalties as an institutional asset class in 2010.

By 2020, when Willard became part time chairman of KMG, including AWAL and digital society amra, the company had grown to $700 million in annual revenue, represented 40% of the top 100 songs in the US and UK, shifted an estimated $10 billion back to creators through higher payouts and retained ownership rights, and created a $20 billion music rights industry with players like KKR and Blackstone. 

Today, Willard is building on this work as an investor and advisor to younger companies, drawing on his passion and experience to work with entrepreneurs who have transformative potential and who are motivated by wanting to make their industry fairer and more transparent.


A decade of experience in finance and media investment banking

Stephen Langer brings a decade of experience in finance and media investment banking to Ahdritz Capital.

Most recently, Stephen was a Vice President at Lazard, where he joined the firm's TMT team and later became a founding member of its Media, Entertainment & Sports practice. In that role, he helped lead the buildout of Lazard's music coverage while also advising clients across film/TV, sports, talent agencies, and diversified media. Prior to Lazard, Stephen began his career at Fitch Ratings, covering credit research and analysis for financial institutions.

Outside of Ahdritz Capital, Stephen is a lifelong musician and producer. Occasionally, he likes to DJ, just like everyone else.

Stephen holds a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and an M.B.A. from UCLA's Anderson School of Management.