Led by the "Queen of the Internet"'s fund, the AI music unicorn is valued at 5.4 billion US dollars

Suno, a leading company in the AI music generation field, announced on Wednesday that it has completed a $400 million Series D financing round. After the investment, its valuation reached $5.4 billion (approximately RMB 36.5 billion).

(Source: Company official website)

The announcement shows that this financing round was led by Bond Capital, founded by "Queen of the Internet" Mary Meeker. Well - known institutions such as IVP, Union Square Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners also participated in this round of financing.

Suno's previous financing round took place in November last year, when the company raised $250 million at a valuation of $2.45 billion. Its valuation doubled in just seven months, indicating investors' optimistic expectations for the "AI + music" field and making Suno the company with the highest valuation in this area.

As one of the most common AI music generation tools on creative platforms such as YouTube and Bilibili, Suno allows users to create music from scratch through text prompts. Users can specify the music style, timbre, instruments, and lyrics, and the system can almost instantly generate a complete digital audio work.

The company achieved the milestone of having over 2 million subscribers in February this year. At that time, the company also disclosed that it was moving towards an Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) of $300 million.

From "Public Enemy of the Industry" to "On the Table"

Suno's development in recent years not only reflects the rapid progress of AI - generated music technology but also witnesses the changing attitude of the traditional music industry towards AI tools.

As the "ChatGPT of the music industry", Suno initially became popular because anyone could generate complete music with simple prompts. As the number of AI - generated music increased sharply, the three major record companies (Universal, Sony, and Warner) sued Suno for copyright infringement in 2024.

Over time, as more and more professional creators use AI tools, the industry's attitude has also changed.

At the end of last year, Suno reached a settlement with Warner Music and obtained the latter's copyright authorization. The two parties plan to launch a collaborative AI - generated product in the next few months, similar to Suno's current tool but with the ability to use and reference Warner's songs.

In the latest announcement on Wednesday, Suno also mentioned that this financing round, as always, received investments from artists, producers, songwriters, and industry executives, but did not disclose their specific names.

Mikey Shulman, co - founder and CEO of the company, told the media on Wednesday that after the previous financing round, the company received external investment interest, so it decided to raise funds again.

To justify its soaring valuation, Suno not only needs to develop an application for professional musicians but also attract millions of "music laymen" to create songs - similar to how Anthropic's Claude Code enables people who have never written code to create websites and applications.

Shulman revealed that the company plans to use this funds to accelerate recruitment, develop new products, and further promote growth based on a strong start this year. Currently, Suno has about 200 employees and plans to increase the staff size by up to 70% by the end of the year.

"Having more funds means we can operate the company in different ways and try some bolder projects," Shulman said.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Venture Capital Daily", author: Shi Zhengcheng. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.