Shane Monahan
LIMOR, the only social media platform dedicated to all aspects of Social Audio, has successfully completed an over-subscribed fund raising of over €500,000.
The proceeds have enabled LIMOR to complete the full launch of its Social Audio platform, which went live in the last number of weeks.
LIMOR CEO is Shane Monahan, the former Leinster, Connacht, Munster, Gloucester and Ireland U20’s grand slam winning rugby player. Shane founded LIMOR in 2014 when he anticipated future demand for audio content and identified the barriers to entry for audio and traditional podcast creation. A native of Drogheda, Co Louth, Shane saw the opportunities in social audio as his rugby career wound down after almost 10 years in the world of professional sport.
LIMOR has witnessed that the demand and market drivers for Social Audio are sufficiently strong that LIMOR is now attracting significant UK institutional investor interest for a further fund raising at an increased valuation.
LIMOR is advised by TMT Capital, the leading advisor to Europe’s fastest growing technology companies.
Social Audio is the one remaining, undisrupted channel of social media, and is the next evolution of social media. Primarily, it comprises short audio content (less than three minutes), but also more traditional podcast audio content (more than three minutes).
Social Audio benefits from several varied, but significant market drivers:
- Changing technology: This is the era of audio (Alexa, Google Home, Siri)
- Ears not eyes: ‘Peak screen’ has been reached. 2.7 billion social media users globally are time poor and want technology to help them save time and multi-task
- Seismic advertising shifts: The shift from TV to digital advertising. In 2017, global digital advertising ($209 billion) exceeded global TV advertising ($178 billion) for the first time, with the gap set to widen
- Podcast growth: The podcast industry is in exponential growth, yet is still in its infancy
- Privacy issues: Consumers want to engage online, but sharing fewer personal images and using other means of communication – i.e. audio
LIMOR is democratising Social Audio and removing barriers between creators and listeners. The Company’s proprietary platform and technology enables users to instantly:
- Record;
- Edit;
- Share;
- Listen to – and converse with – short social audio content and podcasts from their smart phones/devices
Shane Monahan said the company’s name derives from its philosophy (‘Less is More’). This philosophy has shaped the platform’s ease of use and the focus on an uncomplicated user experience.
Shane Monahan commented:
“This fund-raising is a huge vote of confidence in LIMOR and our business model. Social Audio is the last social media channel to be disrupted and we are the ones doing it. What Instagram did for images, we are doing for audio.
“We are perfectly positioned to dominate the Social Audio market – nobody else does what we do. This is the era of audio and it is very exciting; we know that the demand is there – we’re already seeing it. I invite people to come and join the LIMOR conspiracy.”
LIMOR’s platform – which is available on both the Apple and Android operating systems – has several levels of functionality. These include:
- A free entry level service (‘freemium’) followed by;
- A premium level which allows paying subscribers greater scope for audio content creation, and has less advertising
Other levels of LIMOR subscriptions are more geared to large social influencers and B2B audiences.
LIMOR has several potential revenue streams, which include:
- Subscribers to its premium platform;
- Subscribers to its B2B platform; and
- Big brands as strategic sponsorship partners: e.g. paying for audio ads in the entry level offering
Shane Monahan
LIMOR is fully GDPR-compliant and best practice data protection and privacy is at the heart of the Company’s business model. LIMOR works with Bugfinders, the renowned web security company, to ensure its platform is safe and secure.